Johanna Mason: 69th Hunger Games
by Blitzk
Summary: Details Johanna's experiences in the 69th Hunger Games. Bad title...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games

"Ugh! The reaping's today!" I yelled loudly as she threw another knife at the tree across from her. Whatever, my name's only in the bowl once anyways, I probably won't get picked. But I thought that a few years ago too, didn't I? Aaron's name was only in the bowl once, too. But that didn't stop Puff from picking his name.

I threw another knife at the tree across from her, much harder than the last one. Crap. That was Aaron's knife. Well, it wasn't Aaron's anymore, but it was his, and it was my favorite knife. I examined where it was. High up, really high up. Damn. Guess I better go retrieve my knives now.

This was a game I played when I got bored - which was often. I would climb up into a tree fort I finished building several years ago, and throw my set of knives at the tree across from me. When I threw all the knives, I would climb that tree and retrieve them. It was fun, and a challenge at the same time. It was fun because I got to throw knives, but sometimes they were hard to retrieve. I had gotten really good at climbing trees though.

As I climbed down from my fort, I thought about Aaron. I had tried to move on from it, forget about those thoughts. But when you're alone, sometimes thoughts are the only things you have. I never knew who my parents were, or even what happened to them, I only knew that my mom's name was Lillian. I don't even know how I know that, I just do. But since I never had parents, I relied on my older brother Aaron. He raised me. He was my family. I'm not sure how he was able to keep both of us from going to an orphanage, but he did, and he provided for us. Being his age now, I can't even imagine how he was able to do it. He was 18 and I was 9 when he was reaped. I remember crying and having a neighbor watch me while he was gone. I wasn't sent to an orphanage right away, because he had a good chance of winning. He was strong, a good hunter, good with axes and knives, and he was smart. He did well too, he made it to the top six. But then he mysteriously died. They didn't even show it on television, somehow the cameras missed it. Caesar told the audience that he accidentally ate some poisonous berries. The next year or so had been a blur. I remember being forced to move into an orphanage, and constantly crying my eyes out. I had thought about his death a lot. If he hadn't eaten the berries, he could've won. Everybody else has been injured to some degree, but he was in perfect condition. Sometimes I wondered if the Capitol had anything to do with it. After all, Aaron hated the Capitol and hadn't exactly hidden that during the pre-Game stuff. And he was the first person ever to not have his death shown on TV.

But even if it had been some sort of Capitol manipulation, what could I do about it anyway? I am a single girl in District 7, what power do I have?

I brushed thoughts of Aaron aside. That was seven years ago. I climbed the tree that I had thrown the knives in, retrieving the first four easily. There were another three further up, and then Aaron's knife, even higher. I was able to climb up to get the next four, but Aaron's knife proved difficult. There weren't enough branches around the knife for me to climb up and get it. Damn it all. Ugh, why is life so difficult.

I climbed back up to my tree fort and fell back into the position I was in before I got up. Soon, Lora from the orphanage was going to come by to make sure I went to the reaping, like I had a choice. If I didn't, the Peacekeepers would come and hunt her down.

"Johanna!" speak of the devil, "You better get down from there, the reaping begins in half an hour! Don't make me come up there!" Please, like Lora could climb up and get me out. She wasn't exactly the most nimble being 20 pounds overweight. I wouldn't put it past her to shoot me down, or find some other way to get me out. Lora and I weren't exactly on good terms. Ever since I was forced into that hovel the rest of the district called an orphanage, I isolated myself from everybody else. I built my fort, and I basically lived up here. Lora tried to get me to do work, but I just pretended that I sucked at everything, which got me out of it. The district seemed content to just let me live up here, I didn't contribute, but I didn't get in anyone's way. The only time I interacted with people was when I was selling my carvings at the Val, the town market. The Peacekeepers didn't like the market, but it kept the district calm, and I guess they eventually decided that it dissuaded rebellion, so they let us keep it. The Val was stupidly named (it's in a valley, so they just shortened valley to Val), but the Val gave me a place to buy food. In my spare time (I have a lot of it), I would carve stuff. You know, shoes, boxes, jewelry, or anything someone in the Val asked me too. Turns out I'm pretty good at it, because the merchants at the Val like my stuff enough to buy it. A lot of people avoid me because they think I'm cynical (I can't help it if I immediately hate most of the people I meet, can I?), but I had a few consistent customers who were the closest thing I had to friends. There was an old lady, Kalkaska, who loved my jewelry, and would give me really good boxes of food in return. Sometimes the box would have soup, salad, or meat. But whatever it was, it was always good.

"I mean it Johanna! I'm coming up there!" God, she was still there?

"Shut your trap, Lora! Just give me a second, okay? I'll come down!" I yelled down to her. "Whiny bitch." I muttered under my breath. Slowly I got up and made way out of my fort. Time for the reaping.

I didn't bother putting on nice clothes, or even fixing my hair. I wasn't self-conscious, so I didn't really care if I looked like shit or not.

I got in line with the rest of the sixteen year-old girls and waited for Puff to get this whole ordeal over with. 'My name's only in there once. I'm not going to get picked.' I kept reminding myself. It was hard not to be nervous before the reaping, but I was trying my best to be as calm as possible. The stupid video from the Capitol played and I tuned most of it out. I had already seen it too many times. 'Just stupid, bullshit, Capitol propaganda used as an excuse to justify all of this,' my brother would've said. God damn it, Johanna, get a grip. Stop thinking about him!

"Well, let's get started then! Ladies first as always." said Puff say too perkily. Her real name wasn't Puff, it was Galoriah or something stupid like that. But I've always called her Puff because of her ridiculous hair, which can't be described in any way other than neon orange and 'puffy'. She sauntered over to the large bowl with the names of all the girls. Her face wore the stupidest grin ever, and I fought the same urge she fought every year: to just throw an axe at her. What I wouldn't give to be alone with her in the forest with no one around..."And the lucky girl is...!" I held my breath.

"...Johanna Mason!" Great. Fucking perfect.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I probably should've put some sort of Author's Note in the first chapter but I completely forgot, sorry. Anyways, this is only my second fanfic ever and I think I like how it's going so far. I lost interest in the first fanfic I started, but I've promised to not let this one go unfinished. I'll do my best to update this story often.**

**Hope anyone reading this enjoys the story. Please review! All feedback is appreciated (especially the good kind), so let me know what you think. Anyways, to the story…**

So, my name just got called. Marvelous. Fucking marvelous. This is so fucking fantastic. All the girls around me began backing away, clearing a path for me to walk up to the stage. Puff looked at me expectantly, beckoning me forward. Suddenly, I remembered a conversation I had had with myself about what to do if I ever got picked. I began to cry. Not real tears, but I wanted everybody watching to think that the whole situation was too much for me. Continuing with my act, I slowly made my way up to the stage. Puff looked at me encouragingly, but I refused to look at her. Instead, I just stared at the ground in front of me and sobbed. Puff gently put a hand on my shoulder to comfort me, but I could practically feel that cold smile on her face. If only I had an axe on me.

"And now for the gentlemen!" exclaimed Puff. That stupid, shrill, perky bitch. I knew I should be focusing on keeping my act going, but just hearing her voice brought hate-filled thoughts to my head. There weren't many people who could actually make my blood boil, but the sound of her voice alone could make me cringe. I absolutely hated that woman. "Wyatt Nell!" I didn't actually know the kid, I'd never even heard his name before, but I began crying even harder and louder, as if the name had some sort of meaning to me. My crying was extremely obnoxious, and probably drew a lot of attention away from Wyatt. Of course, I couldn't tell, my eyes were still firmly fixed on the ground in front of me. Man, this charade required a lot effort.

I decided to actually take a look at my soon-to-be competitor, Wyatt. He was about my height, blonde too. He had short, spiky hair, and his eyes were green. He was actually pretty cute, but he shouldn't be much of a problem in the arena. I could tell right away that he wasn't a lumberjack, his arms lacked muscle tone. I figured he was probably from one of the richer parts of town with one of the cushier jobs. Wyatt turned and looked at me and Puff looked at us expectantly. I had no clue what that bitch wanted, but Wyatt figured it out. He stuck out his hand and I meekly shook it. "Excellent!" my blood curdled, "Happy Hunger Games everyone! And may the odds be ever in your favor..."

I sat in my room flipping a piece of wood I broke off of the bench I was sitting on. I wasn't expecting any visitors, so I figured I could quit my act for a bit, it annoyed the hell out of me acting like that. Normally, if there was one thing I didn't want to be thought of, it was being weak. But for the Hunger Games, appearing weak could help me win. The only year I had actually watched the Hunger Games carefully was the year that Aaron had been reaped. I had noticed that some of the weaker kids survived longer because the Careers didn't focus on killing them. Some of these kids could just float into the top eight because no one bothered to kill them right away. I figure if I act weak enough, I could make it to the top eight or top seven, then I could up my game and only have to deal with a few more people. And if I could get my hands on an axe and kill the few people left, I could win. I could actually win.

The door to the room suddenly burst open and the Peacekeepers ushered someone in. I quickly dropped my piece of wood and began to cry, as if I had been doing that this entire time. I was getting pretty good at crying on cue. "Oh honey, stop your damn crying. You may be fooling' everybody else, but you sure as hell ain't fooling me." I looked up to see Kalkaska, the old woman from the Val, looking at me. Since she obviously wasn't going to buy my act, I immediately stopped my crying. "Why are you even here?" I asked. I had known her for a long time, and I had traded with her often, but I certainly didn't expect her to come and visit me. "Well, I figured that someone should," she replied, before sitting down next to me on the bench. "I think you've got a good strategy. Most people in the district won't figure it out, and certainly no one in the other districts will. I think it could work. You're handy with an axe and with knives, you know how to climb trees, you're a fast runner, and I don't think you'll let the situation break you emotionally." She was right, I was all of those things, I could win. "I don't have much time left. I just wanted you to know that you have someone here rooting for you, and to reassure you that you can win." Kalkaska nodded and repeated "Oh yeah, you can win." I leaned over and hugged her. It was probably the most affection I had shown anyone in a long time, but she deserved it. I felt her tense at first in surprise, she certainly wasn't expecting it, but she hugged me back. "Aaron would be so proud of you..."

The door burst open and Peacekeepers rushed in to pull Kalkaska out. The Peacekeepers wanted to drag her our, but she stood up and pushed the first man who came up to her. "Get the fuck away from me, I can leave on my own..." she said rather rudely as she made her way out of the room. The Peacekeepers slammed the door behind her. I smiled at Kalkaska's brashness. She was one of the few people in this district that I actually liked. I picked up my piece of wood and went back to flipping it.

Later, Puff escorted Wyatt and I toward the train bound for the Capitol. I decided that I should at least try to tolerate Puff. It'd be a lot easier to focus on my act if I wasn't plotting various ways to murder that vile woman. Her clothing choice wasn't helping her today. She was wearing a particularly obnoxious ensemble: a large, fluffy neon purple (yes, neon purple) dress with a large, tight neon orange belt that had a large golden hoop buckle, rings on every finger, a blue and yellow flower necklace, and long dangly earrings that fell all the way to her shoulders. Her hair was as puffy as ever, and still that awful neon orange color. "Just wait until you see the food we have prepared for you." she said as she led us onto the train. We were led into a room with a wide array of food from the Capitol. I was truly taken aback by the wide array of food in front of us. The furniture was elegant as well, not even the mayor of our district owned this type of stuff. "Not something you see every day, is it?" commented Puff in her awful shrill voice. Calm down Johanna, you're stuck with her for awhile, might as well tolerate her. "Your rooms are right over here. Your mentors, Flip and Brittany will be here to help instruct you shortly." And then she left (thank God), leaving me and Wyatt to sit staring at the food, not sure what to say, what to do. I figured I might as well start getting Wyatt to think I was a worthless ninny, so I started crying. Wyatt looked over at me and pulled me into him, resting my head on his shoulder. He was comforting, and while I was crying on the outside, I was laughing on the inside. He was actually buying my act.

Flip and Brittany came in, and Wyatt let go of me, but I continued to sob. They sat down across from us. I don't remember anything about Flip's Hunger Games, but I did remember Brittany's. Brittany won by joining the Career Alliance, and she betrayed them right after the Cornucopia bloodbath. No one saw it coming, and she killed all five of her allies in ten seconds. With her Career Alliance gone, she was able to hunt down the few remaining tributes and win. She won the year before Aaron was reaped...C'mon Johanna, forget about him. I tried to push thoughts of Aaron out of my head, but then I realized that thinking of Aaron made it easier for me to cry. So instead of pushing him out of my mind, I replayed the moment when Caesar Flickerman announced to the world that Aaron had died over and over again in my head, and suddenly he tears came really easy. I looked up to see Flip staring at me in bewilderment, "Look. You need to calm down," he said, "I know this sucks, and that you don't want to be here, but if you can't pull yourself together you're going to be the first one to die once the games start."

I was actually counting on the opposite, that my weakness will keep people from hunting me down right away, but I didn't say anything. Instead, I tried to pull myself together, as if his words actually had meaning to me. "So how do we get sponsors?" it was Wyatt who asked. Wyatt actually had a decent chance at getting a sponsor or two, he was pretty good looking, and if he was at least a bit handy with a knife or something..."That was the first thing we wanted to talk about." replied Brittany, "Now, do either of you have any strengths?"

"Well, I worked as a butcher, so I know how to use knives. I don't know how to throw them all that well, but I bet I could learn pretty quickly. I also know how to start a fire." Flip and Brittany both seemed please by Wyatt's response. He definitely could pick up a sponsor or two. "And what about you?" Brittany looked at me. Well, I can climb trees, I'm a fast runner, I'm great with an axe and pretty good with knives, I'm pretty smart, and I must be a pretty good actor since I'm completely playing all three of you. Of course, I didn't say that. Instead, I replied meekly, "Well, I can run sort of fast, I guess."

"And you also seem to produce a large amount of water from your eyes." scolded Flip. I pretended to take offense to his comment and increased my crying. "Being an asshole about it isn't going to help her," chided Brittany. I was actually starting to like her a bit. "Yeah? Well it doesn't matter, she's absolutely hopeless." Flip shouted. Boy, will he be in for a shock later. "Let's just focus on Wyatt," Flip said to Brittany, as if neither Wyatt nor I could hear. Brittany looked at me sadly before turning her attention to Wyatt. I think Wyatt might have looked at me sadly too, until he was bombarded by questions about his abilities by Flip. Since I obviously wasn't going to be part of the conversation, I picked up two salads and left. Flip didn't even seem to notice my departure. On the way to my room, Puff was coming in the opposite direction, carrying what looked like a hot cup of tea. Since we were in a tight hallway, I figured I could get away with something like this just once. I pretended to look distracted as I 'accidentally' bumped into her with my shoulder. It caused me to drop one of my salads, but the payoff was worth it. Puff let out an awful scream as her tea spilled all over the front of her dress. Since her job was to cater to us, she couldn't cuss me out like she probably wanted to, but her eyes were filled with hate as she glared at me. "Sorry," I quickly lied, trying to keep from smirking. Puff must've realized what she looked like, because her demeanor instantly changed. And suddenly, she looked all perky again. "It's okay, should come right out." she smiled, before walking down the hall. But I heard her say under her breath, "Dumb bitch. Ughh… Calm yourself, Puff. She'll get what's coming to her when the Games start." God, I hate her.

I went into my room and plopped down on my bed. I quickly ate my salad (it was really good), and started flipping my fork. We were going to be at the Capitol soon, and I only had a few hours left to be myself. Then I had to act as pathetic and weak as possible to get everybody to overlook me. These next few days at the Capitol were going to be Hell. But those few days could determine whether or not I win, so I had to do it.

There was a sharp knock at my door. "We're almost at the Capitol, and Galoriah wants us all up front so the people can see us." It was Wyatt, and it took me a couple of seconds to remember who Galoriah was, I was so used to calling her Puff. Time to start my act. I got some water from the sink and splashed it under my eyes to make it look like I was crying before stepping out to see Wyatt waiting for me. He seemed pretty nice, it was a shame that he was going to die, possibly at my hand. But I reminded myself that I couldn't develop any sort of emotional attachment to anyone, that would just make it harder for me to kill them later. Puff ushered us to the window where crowds of people waved at us as the train pulled in. I couldn't help notice that Puff changed her dress, I smiled to myself. I stared out at the people and waved meekly, trying to make myself look scared. I was already getting sick of acting like this. These next few days were going to be excruciating.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: This chapter was a lot longer than I intended but it's my favorite chapter so far. I don't like reading long chapters and I know other people don't too, so I try to avoid making mine too long. Unfortunately, I started writing and really just couldn't stop. My chapters seem to keep getting longer but I promise the next one will be shorter. **

**Once again, please review. I love hearing what people have to say about my writing. Thanks to Lillybylilly for reviewing after the last chapter. I hope that anyone reading this likes it. **

"Ow!" I screeched as the three drones worked on me. They were "trying to make me pretty," and if I wasn't putting up an act I probably would've barfed. I don't like 'looking pretty' to begin with, and I didn't think I was going to like the Capitol standard of looking pretty very much either. "Just hold still. We're almost done," said the tallest of the drones. I endured the pain for a few more minutes before they sent me off to the district designer. His name was Drek, and I basically ignored him as he lectured me about the dress I was going to wear. He slipped it on me, and all I remember about it was that it was pine green and was supposed to represent our district.

Later that day, we had to get ready for the Ceremonies, where we rode out on chariots and acted like all of us actually wanted to be here, where we acted like what we would do later was somehow justifiable. Drek put me back into my dress and I went over to my designated chariot with Wyatt. I decided that crying now would be overdoing so I just stood at my chariot expressionless. Since I wasn't over-exerting my tear ducts, I decided now would be a good time to examine the other tributes. I didn't pay attention when they showed us the tapes of everybody being reaped, so I didn't know much about anyone other than Wyatt. The District One tributes were both really tall. The boy was large and really ripped, he looked old too, probably 18. He had blonde hair, similar to Wyatt's, eyes the same as Wyatt's too. Geez, they could be brothers. The girl had long, dirty blonde hair that fell to her mid-back. She was probably a good head taller than me, and she looked like she might be 18 too. The District Two tributes looked just as in shape as the District One tributes. The boy had short, jet black hair, and piercing light blue eyes. The girl was blonde and had her hair in a high ponytail. She had an air of confidence about her, and she actually sort of scared me.

I was about to start examining the District Three tributes when music started playing, signaling the start of the Ceremonies. Our chariot got pulled out, and while Wyatt waved happily at the crowd, I just stood there dumbly. If I was going to convince everyone I was weak, I had to commit to my act, and that included right now. I basically just stood there dumbly for the entire event, and Puff scolded me afterwards for my behavior. I just blocked out her words. I really didn't give a shit about what she had to say. Afterwards I just went back to my room and thought about the upcoming days. Tomorrow would be training, and the day after that we would receive our scores. And then the day after that...would be the start of the Hunger Games.

There was a knock at my door, and Brittany asked if he could come in. Since I had to be nice to people, I let her in. She sat down next to me and started giving me advice for training tomorrow. I sort of appreciated that she was going out of her way to help me, I certainly wasn't being a very good pupil. "Just remember, if you can, learn how to identify healthy berries and start a fire. If you can survive in the wilderness on your own, then you may be able to make it pretty far. Who knows, people might not see you as a threat and not even try to kill you right away, you could actually make it pretty far." So, Brittany basically figured out my plan, except my plan involved turning into a killer and winning. Her plan ended with me dead. I liked my plan more.

The next day, Wyatt and I took the elevator down to the training room. Flip wasn't at breakfast which was fine with me, I had basically been avoiding him as much as possible anyway. The elevator slowed as we got closer to the training room, time to put my game face on. The Careers were already training, along with the kids from a few other districts. I walked past the girl from District Two, who's name I had learned was Iris. Iris was at the axe throwing station, and was holding five axes in one hand. She glared at me before stepping forward and throwing one of the axes at the target in front of her. Her form wasn't very good, she was clenching the axe too tightly too high up on the handle. Her grip was a bit off too. She then quickly threw the next four. Her strength was good, and the axes went deep into the target, but the accuracy of her throws suffered from her poor form. Still, her throws did enough to visibly scare some of the other tributes, and when she looked at me, I pretended to be intimidated. Iris then moved to the knife station. She seemed much more comfortable there, her throws were much more accurate.

I decided that I might as well take the time to try ad learn some stuff. I took Brittany's advice and decided to go to a survival station. I started at the berries station, and began to memorize the berries that were safe. The instructor would occasionally test me, and every time I would pick the berries that would kill me. But I knew that, I had to appear as if I didn't know what I was doing. And at the very least, I was getting good at knowing which berries not to eat. I could tell that the instructor was getting irritated with me, and since I had already spent a lot of time there, I figured I should try to learn some other stuff. I spent some time watching the fire instructor build a fire, and memorized most of the steps. Then I went to the trapping station and learned some basic traps. Of course, anyone watching me would've thought that I hadn't learned anything because of my terrific acting, but I was actually picking up on a lot of stuff. Every now again I would see the Careers laughing at me as I failed to correctly build a trap, but I'd just ignore them. They should enjoy the sight of me struggling while it lasted, they weren't going to have a clue what hit them in the arena when I finally dropped this ridiculous act. After going through all of the survival stations (and the berry station twice) I made my way to the knife station. I threw knives in my spare time, but I could definitely improve my form. I had already decided to stay as far away from the axe station as possible, if I got my hands on one it would just be too tempting to throw it as hard as I could at the head of a dummy. At the knife station, I took two knives and threw them as poorly as I could. They both hit the ground a few feet in front of me. I had attracted the attention of the Careers and they laughed at my pathetic attempt to throw. I so desperately wanted to throw a knife right into the forehead of the dummy in front of me, but I had to keep my act up. I hate this stupid fucking act. The instructor came over and showed me how to properly hold the knife. The grip he had me use wasn't that much different than the one I normally used. I simulated a throwing motion to see how the new grip felt without showing my strength. The new grip made the throwing motion a lot smoother, but I couldn't figure out what the release was like without actually throwing the knife. "Well, go on, throw it." said the instructor. I threw the knife again, this time hitting the lower part of the target. I could've thrown it a lot better, but it felt satisfying to actually hit the damn target. Still, the Careers scoffed and moved on to watching two tributes struggle to build a fire.

After spending some more time at the berry station (I had a bunch memorized now) I scoped out more of the competition. The Career boys were all lifting weights. Originally, I thought it was just the boys from Districts One and Two, but apparently he boy from District Four had joined the alliance as well. I had learned that the guy from District One was named Gram and that the guy from District Two was named Jett. I didn't know the name of the District Four boy, but he was tan and had messy brown hair. I decided to call him Mud, because that's what his hair reminded me of. The two Career girls were both working with the bows and arrows. Iris didn't seem very comfortable, her usual smugness gone, but the District One girl seemed at home there. She was pretty good with a bow. I had learned that her name was Siren. The tributes from ten and twelve were pathetically trying to build a fire, and the two tributes from eleven were setting traps. The girl was struggling but the guy seemed to know what he was doing. I wondered where Wyatt was and found him talking with a few other tributes at the berry station. He was with the two tributes from five and the girl from six. Why was he hanging out with them? After the tributes from twelve and ten left the fire station, I went over there to refresh my memory on how to build a fire. As the instructor went over the steps with me, a guy and a girl I didn't recognize came over. "So just take the sticks and this rock and strike..." I zoned out. "Hey, what's your name?" I was snapped out my trance by the girl next to me. I looked up to see that the instructor had left. "He left to talk with some of the Gamemakers," said the girl, as if reading my mind, "What's your name?" I looked at up at her, "Johanna, from District Seven." "Nice to meet you Johanna, I'm Mara. And that's Clay," said the girl. I looked over at Clay, and he smiled weakly before turning his attention back to the fire he was making. "What district are you two from?" I asked. "We're both from District Eight." replied Mara. Mara was about my height, and had straight brown hair that was pulled pack into a short ponytail. Her eyes were green and she seemed to genuinely be smiling. Why the hell was she so happy? Clay had sandy brown hair and dark brown eyes, and all of his attention was on the fire he was trying to build. Clay managed to get his fire started, and Mara leaned over to say something, "So, do you have an alliance yet? Or are you in the minority like us." What? How many alliances were there? There was the Career alliance of course, but what other alliance was there? Then I remembered Wyatt. I looked over and saw him talking with some other tributes, including the girl from District Six. Mara saw what I was looking at and pointed at the two of them, "Yep, those two are working together, and there are other people in that group too, I'm just not entirely sure who else though. The girl's name is Elodie and she's from District Six. But I don't know about the guy." I studied Elodie briefly, she was Wyatt's height and had stunning brown hair, held back a gold headband that matches her hazel eyes. "The guy's name is Wyatt, he's from my district." I told Mara. Clay looked up at us, "I've overheard some of them talking, and it sounds like they're making an alliance to counter the Careers. That's why the Careers brought in the boy from District Four, to make their alliance stronger. From what I've been able to gather, the boy from District Nine, Brisk, might be part of it, as well as the girl from District Five, Cinder." "I've also seen them talking with the two tributes from District Three." interjected Mara. "Oh, there names are Gage and Mallory. They're both pale and have black hair," said Clay.

"How do you remember that stuff?" I asked. "Clay's got a really good memory, great spatial relations too," said Mara pluckily. Clay's expression didn't change despite the compliment. "I also saw Wyatt, Elodie, and Cinder talking to the boy from District Five earlier." I added. "He's another possibility," said Clay, "his name is Crimson." "You don't think all of them could be in an alliance, do you?" I asked the two. "I don't know about all of them," said Mara, "a seven person alliance? That's unheard of, I don't think an alliance that big has ever formed before." "There was a six person alliance in the 62nd Hunger Games, but it didn't last very long," chimed Clay. "Anyways, if the alliance does together, that's twelve people in an alliances. We wouldn't stand a chance by ourselves," said Mara. I saw where this was going, "So you think the three of us should form an alliance," I said. "Well it would increase our odds of survival a bit," said Clay. "So what do you say?" asked Mara as she stuck out her hand, "Alliance?" "Sure," I replied, shaking her outstretched hand.

"So what are your strengths?" asked Clay. "Well," I said thinking, "I'm pretty fast." That was all O had told Flip and Brittany, but this alliance could help me, and I needed them to want to keep me alive. "And I'm really good at identifying berries," I added. "Oh, that's really helpful," said Mara happily. "Clay's got a good memory, but he's slightly color blind, which normally isn't a problem. But it does make it hard for him to tell some of the berries apart. I'm pretty fast myself, and I'm pretty handy with a bow. Not as good as some of the Careers," she gestured to Siren, who was training at the shooting range, "but I'm still pretty good. Clay can use a bow and arrow too, and as I said earlier, he has a great memory and great spatial relations."

After I had shaken hands with Mara and Clay again, training ended and I went back up to my room with Wyatt, who was smiling like and idiot. His alliance building must be going well, why else would he be grinning like that? Flip and Brittany greeted us and asked us how training went. Wyatt immediately started blabbing to Flip, and I raced to my room, sending the message that things did not go well.

I was in a bit of a dilemma now, my original plan had been to appear as weak as possible so everyone would overlook me, but if I looked too weak, my alliance might not want me. And the alliance could be useful later if the stuff about Wyatt's alliance was true. But maybe being in an alliance was a bad thing, it would just draw unnecessary attention if anyone else found out. Mara and Clay seemed nice, and I could probably trust them, but if they were able to learn about the other alliances, what was to stop other people from learning about us? We had been sitting at the fire station for awhile, what if someone had seen us talking and shaking hands and connected the dots? I decided that I needed to appear incredibly weak but still keep my alliance, but how was that even possible? I guess I could just get a really bad training score and just explain that to Mara and Clay that it was a fluke. That seemed to be the best solution. I was pulled out of thought by a knock on the door. I looked up and saw that it had already gotten dark, how long had I been sitting here thinking? The knock repeated, "Johanna, it's me, Brittany." I was nice and let her in.

"So how did training today go?" she asked. "Not well," I mumbled, sniffling a little. "Johanna, drop the act." said Brittany. "What?" I asked incredulously. Shit. Did she really know I was faking my frailty? And if she knew, who else knew? "Don't worry, Johanna. I don't think anybody else suspects a thing, but when I suggested that being weak might get you further, I didn't realize that that was what your strategy was." "How did you figure it out?" I asked her, a little relieved that I didn't have to constantly act like a baby. "Well I was talking to some of the Gamemakers and they were discussing the progress everybody made. They talked about how the District Twelve tributes had managed to build a fire and how the District Eleven tributes had learned how to make some traps pretty quickly. And then they got to you and they remarked how you had made virtually no progress, and how you sucked at everything." I snickered to myself, at least I had the Gamemakers fooled. "I hadn't quite figured it out at that point," continued Brittany, "but I was incredibly suspicious. And then the knife throwing instructor joined the conversation. He talked about how he showed you the correct grip, and how you were going through the throwing motion, and how the motion was almost completely perfect. And then you threw the knife and it was like you threw everything he said right out the window. And then I remembered our conversation yesterday and it clicked." I was a bit impressed, she was smarter than she looked. "Don't tell..." I started, but she cut me off, "Don't tell Flip or Wyatt? Don't worry, I won't." Good. "I think it's a good strategy. I don't know what you're really capable of, but you could definitely win." I smiled. She'd find out how good I could be soon enough. "So what about Wyatt?" I asked, "Is the stuff about his big anti-Career alliance true?"

She looked at me, stunned, but the look was replaced with a smile. "You're pretty observant. But I can't give you much information about that." "Well, why the hell not?" I asked rudely. It felt good to speak normally again. "Because it wouldn't be fair to Wyatt. My job is to help both of you. And it wouldn't really be fair to give information to one of you at the expense of the other? You wouldn't like it if I told Wyatt your plan would you?" Ughh...Brittany was all about fairness. "Who cares about fairness? Flip doesn't seem to give a damn about me. I bet if he learned my plan he'd tell Wyatt as soon as possible!" Brittany seemed to consider what I said, but responded, "Sorry." She got up and was halfway out the door before turning back to me and saying, "It just wouldn't be fair if I told you about Wyatt's seven person alliance against the Careers, it just wouldn't." And then she left.

I smiled. She hadn't given me much, but she'd at least given me something. Wyatt's alliance included seven people. I laid down on my bed and closed my eyes. Training scores were tomorrow, I needed to be well rested for that. Not really, I was going to botch my training evaluation, but I was tired.

**A/N: I'll probably update this with another chapter in the next day or so. I'm on Spring Break so I've had some extra spare time to write this. When school starts again I might not be able to update this as quickly (maybe every two days or so, we'll see). **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I was originally thinking about splitting this into two chapters, but I decided to wrap things up and post it in one. This is the last chapter before they get into the arena. Once again, please review if you like it! And even review if you don't, I like getting feedback, positive or negative. **

I probably should've been eating more, some of the most extravagant food I've ever seen was sitting in front of me, but I wasn't stuffing my face like Wyatt was. I was too nervous for that. "What's the matter dear? You should be eating more. It's a big day! You don't want to be hungry during your evaluation." Puff chided. Ugh...Shut the fuck up you stupid bitch! Like you possibly know anything about what I'm going through! If only I could vocalize that, instead I muttered, "I'm just really nervous." Puff looked at me with the oddest expression, "Well, not eating won't help," she commented before returning her attention to her own breakfast. Truth is, I was nervous. Not about the evaluation (it was getting really easy for me to appear pathetic in front of other people), but about the possible backlash from Mara and Clay. Hopefully my poor score didn't get me kicked out of the alliance we made.

A few short hours later, we were in the waiting room. Because of the way we were lined up, I sat in between Wyatt and Clay, with Mara on the other side of Clay and Elodie on the other side of Wyatt. The Careers had already went, and I could only imagine what high marks they received. They had each given us condescending glances before entering. Except for Mud, I don't think he entirely understood that part of being a Career was intimidating people. Cinder was inside the room right now getting evaluated, then the boy from District Six (a small twig of a kid who Clay had told me was named Ash) would go, then Elodie would go, then Wyatt would go, then I would go. But as I looked over, Ash had disappeared, Cinder must've finished. A few minutes later, Elodie had entered. Geez, Ash must've really sucked, he couldn't have been in there for more than ten minutes! Somehow, I had to do worse than him. Elodie and Wyatt were both in the room for around twenty minutes, and then it was my turn. I stood and headed into the room, with Mara flashing me a quick smile before the door closed behind me.

The Gamemakers all sat at a table waiting, they looked bored. First I went and grabbed some knives. I looked at them as if I didn't even know what they were. Taking one in hand, I made sure to hold it as incorrectly as possible. I lined my self up with the target, and threw it poorly. To my surprise, the knife actually hit the lower end of the target. Damn. I didn't want that to happen. I took four more knives and took extra care to make sure that my throws missed the target. I sobbed a bit at my failure, but the Gamemakers still looked at me expectantly, as if they wanted to see more. Perplexed, I looked at the weapons to see what else I could use. My eyes wondered a bit before they fell on a spear. Perfect! I hadn't even tried throwing a spear before! Taking the spear, I walked back to the throwing station. I gripped the spear close to the tip, which was probably horribly wrong, but I didn't care. I lifted my arm and chucked the spear at the target as hard as I could. But instead of flying forward, the spear flipped over and landed in front of me. I guess you can't throw spears the same way you throw knives. I heard some of the people behind the table and snicker, and at this I burst into tears. I sat on the ground and just stayed there, crying. Finally, a woman stood up and looked at me sadly, "I think we've seen everything we need to see." I nodded my head lazily before standing up and somberly walking out, sobbing occasionally. As soon as I stepped out I smiled, that went well.

Puff, Brittany, Flip, and Wyatt sat around me as we waited for Caesar to read our scores. Wyatt seemed pleased with how he had done, which made Flip happy too. When Brittany asked me how I had done, I just shook my head and cried. I caught Flip roll his eyes as Brittany comforted me, asshole. "And now, for the scores..." began Caesar. We all sat up in rapt attention as Caesar continued, "From District One, Gram, with a score of...nine. And Siren, with a score of...nine. From District Two, Jett, with a score of...ten. And Iris, with a score of...ten. From District Three, Gage, with a score of...five. And Mallory, with a score of...six. From District Four, Hatch, with a score of...eight. And Aloe, with a score of...five. From District Five, Crimson, with a score of...seven. And Cinder, with a score of...seven. From District Six, Ash, with a score of...two. And Elodie, with a score of...seven. From District Seven, Wyatt, with a score of...eight. And Johanna, with a score of...two. From District Eight, Clay, with a score of...three. And Mara, with a score of...six. From District Nine, Brisk, with a score of...eight. And Tawny, with a score of...three. From District Ten, Cael, with a score of...four. And Leigh, with a score of...two. From District Eleven, Noel, with a score of...three. And Sepia, with a score of... five. From District Twelve, Lane, with a score of...two. And Reina, with a score of...two."

A two, that would do. Four other people had gotten twos, though. So she wasn't really set apart from the others. I made a quick mental note of who else got twos: Lane and Reina (D12), Leigh (D10), and Ash (D6). Flip pulled Wyatt into another room to talk privately and Puff left to chat up potential sponsors, leaving Brittany and I alone. "You need to make sure to mess your interview up tomorrow," she said, "four other kids got twos as well as you, you need to find a way to set yourself apart in a bad way." I nodded in agreement. "You couldn't have gotten a one?" she asked me jokingly. "Yeah," I scoffed, "one of my knife throws accidentally hit the bottom of a target. That was probably what did it." "Brittany!" shouted Flip as he poked his head out of the door, "We need to discuss some things with you!" Brittany looked at me awkwardly, "Can it wait a few minutes? I was talking to Johanna about..." "Who cares!" he cut her off, "She got a two. Wyatt got an eight. Now come here!" Brittany sighed heavily before complying, getting off of the couch and leaving me for Wyatt and Flip. Wow, Flip was an asshole. He was getting to be worse than Puff. If Puff didn't have so much history on her side, I might've said that Flip was worse. He had certainly been worse than her the past couple of days. I got up and went to my room.

Because of some sort of scheduling problem, the interviews were going to be on the same night as the evaluations. So in an hour, I was going to have to get torn apart again by the drones in an attempt to 'make me look pretty'. Great.

I had endured the drones and was currently enduring the awful dress that Drek was having me wear. The dress wasn't ugly, it was actually sort of nice, it was just a pain in the ass to wear. The dress fell down past my feet because Drek had wanted to hide my 'hideous feet'. On top of that, I was wearing high heels. I had tried to get Drek to give me a good reason as to why I was wearing heels despite the fact that no one would be able to see my feet. His response: "People won't see the heel, but they'll hear them as you walk, and then they'll know you're fashionable." I didn't bother arguing it further, he had made it clear he wasn't going to concede. I didn't even want to look at what he'd done with my hair.

Wyatt and I stood with Flip, Brittany, and Puff waiting to be interviewed. The Careers had all interviewed well, so had Gage and Mallory from District Three. Aloe, from District Four, was getting interviewed. Despite being from the fishing district, she was surprisingly pale. She had black hair that didn't quite reach her shoulders, and was wearing a salmon colored dress. I couldn't quite hear the interview over Puff's constant babbling. She was trying to give us advice on how to give a good interview, but most of her advice was common knowledge, "...and don't forget to smile! Always smile! The crowd loves a good smile!" she quipped. Aloe left the stage and it was Mud's turn. I knew his name was Hatch, but I was still going to call him mud. I needed I figure out how I was going to blow this. It wouldn't be enough to just dumbly answer questions during the interview, I needed to look spectacularly stupid. I had to somehow look worse than the other four tributes who had gotten twos. Cinder and Crimson both finished there interviews, and then it was Elodie's turn. She interviewed well, as I expected her to. And then Ash went. He was one of the four others who had managed to get twos. He didn't interview well, unfortunately. He was slow to answer, disengaged, and mumbled everything he said. Caesar almost looked sorry for the kid when he left the stage.

"And now, from District Seven, please welcome...Johanna Mason!" Shit. It was my turn and I still didn't have a plan! Puff gave me a little nudge in the back, "Go on, it's your turn now." Of course it was my turn. I trudged forward, suddenly remembering how difficult it was to walk in this dress with heels. And that's when I plan came to me. I walked on stage and waved warmly to the crowd as they applauded. Caesar held out his hand to help me the rest of the way to the chair. I reached out to take it. Our fingers were inches apart, when I tripped over my dress. I could hear the front of my dress tear as I fell forward, falling into Caesar. Caesar, unprepared for my fall, was knocked backward and fell on his back. I ended up hitting my face on the hard floor. Sure it hurt, but it was worth it. I could see some accessories that must've been in my hair scattered in front of me. The crowd gasped at the sight in front of them, and a flurry of whispers followed as Caesar groaned and pulled himself off of the floor. I looked backstage as I began to pull myself off of the ground. Wyatt was dumbfounded, Flip was laughing his ass off, Puff stood exasperated with her hand over her mouth, and Brittany was fighting a smirk. Caesar came over to me and helped me up before sitting me down in the interview chair. "Well, that was quite an entrance!" began Caesar, obviously trying to lighten the mood. A few people in the crowd laughed, but the undercurrent of whispers remained. I pretended to be embarrassed by what had happened. I sobbed gently and wouldn't meet Caesar's eyes. I looked down and saw that I had effectively ruined the bottom half of my dress and had lost my heels during the fall (they were still lying on the left side of the stage), exposing my 'hideous feet' to the world. This was going well. "Don't be to embarrassed, Johanna," said Caesar, "You can still walk in heels better than I can!" This got the crowd laughing, dispelling the awkwardness of the moment. "So tell us, Johanna," continued Caesar, "Is there anybody back home you'd like to say hello to now that you're on TV?" I looked up at him sadly and sighed, "No, not really. I don't really have any friends back home." I heard the crowd let out a slight "Aww..." in pity. Not good. I can't have them pity me, that means they might like me a little. "So what do you think of the Capitol?" asked Caesar, "It's probably quite different from your district." I decided to develop a stutter, "I-I-It's overwhelming," I said exasperated." Caesar looked at me, as if hoping for more, but said "Well, I can only imagine. Let's talk about your training score, shall we? You got a two, do you think they got it right, or do you think you've should've been give a higher score?" "I-I-I..." I stuttered before stopping and staring off into the crowd. Caesar sensed my trouble and wrapped things up, "Well, regardless of your score, we all look forward to seeing what you'll do in the arena." "Thank you," I politely whimpered before shaking his hand. I let a few tears slide down my face. I began to walk offstage, deciding to leave my shoes out there. "Ladies and gentlemen, Johanna Mason!" shouted Caesar again as I walked off. As the crowd cheered I stumbled slightly, getting another nice gasp from the crowd, before I disappeared backstage. Wyatt had already gone onstage, Flip had disappeared, and Puff stood behind Brittany shaking her head. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead she just turned and walked away.

With no one else around, Brittany and I both smiled widely. "That was amazing," she said, "You should've seen the faces on everybody in the crowd." We stayed and watched Wyatt's interview (he did well), but I really wanted to see Mara and Clay's interviews. Mara had a few awkward moments where she just sat there trying to think of her answers. Clay seemed to have all of his answers memorized and rehearsed, but he exerted no personality on stage. Puff joined us again after all the interviews were over and went with Brittany and I back to the room. She didn't say anything, but she occasionally shot me some strange glares. Wyatt and Flip weren't in the room when we got back. "Well I hope you're happy with yourself!" Puff finally exploded, "You've lost all hope of picking up even a single sponsor! I'm so infuriated and embarrassed, I could...!" But she didn't finish, instead she stormed off. "Well, I think you did an excellent job," commented Brittany, "You should probably go to sleep now, the Games begin tomorrow. I think you actually have a good shot at winning this, so get some rest. It's been a long day."

I nodded my head and went to my room. The Games were tomorrow, so I did need my rest. The other tributes weren't going to know what hit them.

**A/N: Hope everyone liked it. I might be able to finish another chapter tonight, but if not, I'll definitely have one up tomorrow. Thanks for reading, and please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: This chapter is pretty short, but I wanted to put one more up today and I found a good place to stop, so…yeah. Hope it's good. I'll ask once again (like I've done for pretty much every chapter) for everyone to please review! My author's notes probably sound like broken records, but I love reading what people have to say. **

The goodbyes had been brief that morning. In fact, Flip hadn't even said goodbye. Puff's goodbye was short; she had simply put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Good luck." Brittany's goodbye was much more drawn out. Not only had she given me a hug (I hate hugs), but she also given me some advice. Sure, her advice was stupid (she reminded me to find water, like I would forget), but she was at least trying. Drek had given Wyatt and I our arena clothes, too. And unlike the two dresses he had put me in earlier, the arena clothes were actually comfortable. He gave us ivory colored pants and brown shirts, and an ivory colored jacket that he said would keep us warm.

And now we were all on a ship taking us to the arena. A worker came over and injected a tracker chip into my arm. I winced, not that the injection was painful, but I still had to keep my act going for the other tributes. I didn't want to be one of the people that the Careers or the alliance of seven went for first. But even if they did, I'd at least have my alliance. I looked over at Mara and Clay; I hadn't talked to either of them since we formed our alliance during training. Clay was currently looking over all of the tributes. He was probably trying to 'memorize' them further or something. Hopefully they weren't too upset about my awful score and dreadful interview. I could always come with a lie to defend myself, and they would need me to find berries. I could always remind them of their poor scores too. It's not like either of them did all that great either.

I went over my strategy again in my head. I need to get away from the cornucopia, find water, find my alliance, try to get my hands on an axe, and survive to at least the top eight. If I could get to the top eight, then I could drop my act and possibly work on getting some sponsors to support me.

Suddenly, we landed and each of us were blindfolded. I was pried out of my seat and had my hands held behind my back as I was guided out of the ship. After walking for some time, I was released and I could hear a door close behind me. I undid my blindfold and observed my surroundings. I was in a large white room by myself, with a large glass tube at the far wall. The tube was open, and I knew that I was supposed to step inside. Once I had stepped on the platform, the tube closed shut. A few seconds later, a countdown began,

"60...59...58...57..."

As the platform slowly began to rise, a sudden anxiety overcame me. What if I died in the initial bloodbath? What if my alliance betrays me? What if no one bought my act? What if there wasn't a single axe? What if the environment was something horrible like a desert or frozen tundra? I tried to clear as many of these thoughts from my head as possible. I took a few deep breaths, getting nervous wasn't going to help me.

"32...31...30...29..."

The room disappeared beneath me and I could make out glimmers of light shining through above me. I needed to be calm. I repeated my goals to myself: get away from the cornucopia, find water, find my alliance.

"20...19...18...17..."

I was thrown into sunlight as the platform continued to rise. By the looks of it, I was in a wooded area. Good. The platform finished its ascent and I looked around. The Careers looked bloodthirsty.

"11...10...9...8..."

The cornucopia was littered with weapons. I spotted a nice golden axe, but it was really far away.

"7...6...5...4..."

It looked like we were on the top of a large hill. There were other smaller hills surrounding us, but because of the trees, I didn't know much else about the environment.

"...3..."

Here we go.

"2...1..."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: This was a fun chapter to write, hope everybody likes it! Warning: This chapter is where things start to get more violent, but you probably knew that was coming, right? **

**Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! I actually really appreciate it. I was so happy when I read some of them. Anyways, let me know what you think of this chapter. I might have another one up today.**

As the countdown reached one, the sound of an explosion rang through the arena. I looked over to see that the spot where the District Six boy had stood (Ash) was nothing more than a hole in the ground.

"...0..."

The Games had begun. I immediately turned and dashed to the woods. I could hear screams and the sounds of battle behind me, but I couldn't stop to look, I had to keep running. I reached the trees but didn't stop. I needed to get away from the cornucopia. Suddenly, the ground beneath me disappeared and I was falling. I hadn't even noticed the end of the hill. I tumbled down, unable to stop myself, until the drop leveled out. I got up and tried to move my arms around, no pain. I stood up and took a few steps, no pain. Good, I wasn't hurt. I looked in front of me and saw a wide expanse of swamp. The I looked into the distance and saw a hill not too far away. I made getting to the hill my goal for the day.

I set out, but trekking through the swamp was difficult. The mud made it hard to move and it was eroding my boots for some reason. A cannon sounded, and I paid attention. More cannon shots fired and I counted. Six. That wasn't very many. In fact, that was probably the least deadly bloodbath ever. And since Ash had died before the bloodbath had even started, it meant that only five people had actually been killed by other tributes. The Capitol probably wasn't very happy with that. Feeling thirsty, I reached down to cup some water from the swamp. At least water wouldn't be hard to find. But then I stopped. The water was just sitting in the swamp, and it is was everywhere, there was no way the Gamemakers would make it that easy. The water was probably unhealthy. I looked down into it, it looked pretty clear actually. I cupped some in my hands and took a closer look, sure enough, a thin green algae was present. I suddenly felt a burning sensation on my hands and dropped the water. I hissed in pain. The water was definitely unhealthy. I looked down at my hands and saw that the algae had burned them, leaving them singed. That also explained why my boots were being damaged by walking through the swamp. A cannon shot sounded from far away, signaling the death of another tribute. I heard someone coming; they were running and sounded tired. Then I heard a splash, pants, a muted scream, and then nothing. And then another shot fired, this one was much closer. Whoever I had just heard had somehow died. I listened intently to make sure no one else was around. Confident that I was alone, I walked towards the sound of the cannon. Sure enough, I stumbled on the body of Aloe, the girl from District Four. Her face was severely burned, and her throat was a horrid shade of pink. A water bottle lay in her hand. She had filled her water bottle with the water from the swamp. She didn't even realize it was poisoned until it was too late. I rolled her over and saw she was wearing a backpack. I quickly yanked it off of her and left. I would've taken the water bottle, but there might've been left over algae in it and I didn't want to risk suffering the same fate as Aloe.

Eight people were dead now, sixteen left. I continued my trek towards the hill in the distance. I tried to stay on higher ground as much as I could. The more time I spent with my feet in the swamp, the more damaged my boots became. I was able to avoid too much time in the swamp; there were usually narrow patches of solid ground to walk on. It was getting dark by the time I finally reached the hill. It felt good to get out of the swamp. And since this hill didn't have many trees, I could get a better look at the arena. The large hill in the middle where the cornucopia was seemed to be the center of the arena. I was on one of the small wooded hills surrounding the larger one. And I as I now knew, the hills were separated by a poisonous swamp. I sat down and looked through the contents of my recently acquired bag, in it was: a small knife, steel gloves (steel?), matches, and a tarp. This was pretty lucky for me. Aside from the steel gloves (why steel?), everything in the bag could be useful. My stomach growled and I was suddenly aware of my hunger and thirst. Uncontaminated water was going to be difficult to find. But berries have some water in them, so if I find some healthy berries, I could get rid of both my hunger and my thirst. It took some scouring, but I finally found some blue berries that I remembered from training were safe to eat. The berries tasted good, but I had to save some for later. I had picked the bush clean, so for now this was my only food. After eating ten or so berries, I wrapped the rest in the tarp and gently placed it on top of the gloves and matches. I had taken the knife and put it in my belt, it could come in handy should I run into another tribute.

It was really dark and time for me to think about sleep. I found a large pine tree and climbed it as high as I could go. The branch I settled on was covered in sap, but that was just a minor inconvenience. The Capitol anthem began to play and I looked up into the sky to see which of the tributes had died. The first two faces shown, I recognized as Gage and Mallory from District Three; they must've died in the initial bloodbath. Then the two tributes from District Four were shown, Mud (Hatch) and Aloe. I had seen Aloe's body myself but I was surprised to see Mud's face. The next face shown was Ash's, followed by three faces I didn't recognize. They were Tawny from District Nine, and Lane and Reina from District Twelve. The anthem finished and the emblem disappeared from the sky. I remembered that there was only one other person left with a training score as low as mine. Ash, Lane, and Reina had gotten twos, but they were dead now. The only other remaining tribute with a two was Leigh from District Ten. I also realized that Wyatt's alliance was down to five with the deaths of Gage and Mallory, and that the Career Alliance was down to four with the death of Mud (Hatch). Which of the alliances had control won control of the cornucopia? Judging by the low number of deaths, I guessed that Wyatt's alliance had just tried to get as many weapons as possible before escaping. If they had fought it out for the cornucopia, the death count would've been much higher.

I was just beginning to fall asleep when the smell of smoke wrenched me awake. I looked around and saw that someone had built a fire not too far away from where I was. Who was stupid enough to build a fire in the middle of the night? They were just going to draw one of the alliances. I considered moving, but that might create too much noise. The pine needles hid me pretty well too, and it was unlikely anyone would spot me, especially in the dark. A bloodcurdling scream echoed through the woods, followed by the sound of a cannon. Whoever had built that fire had just paid for it with their life. I heard the sound of footsteps coming and made sure to be as still as possible. "Hey, let's just stop here for the night," I heard someone below me say. "Sounds good," replied the voice of a girl. I recognized it, but couldn't quite remember who it belonged to. "So who's going to keep watch first?" said the same girl. It took a few moments, but I finally figured out who the voice belonged to: Elodie. "I guess I'll keep first watch," said another person who I immediately recognized as Wyatt. "Hey Wyatt, wake me up when you get tired, I'll take second watch." said a different girl, who I reasoned was Cinder. "Okay," replied Wyatt. They set up right beneath the tree I was in, and went to sleep (except for Wyatt).

They didn't realize I was up here. Good. Relaxing, I fell asleep too.

I woke up later that night for no apparent reason; I guess I was just having trouble sleeping. I looked down at the alliance below me to see if they were still there. They were, but oddly, Wyatt was still leaning against the base of the tree. Was he still keeping watch? I squinted my eyes and realized that he was actually sleeping! No one else was keeping watch; he must've accidentally dozed off. I considered climbing down and slitting all of their throats in their sleep, but decided against it. I might accidentally wake one of them when I climbed down. But while contemplating, I heard a something in the bushes not too far away. I peered through the darkness toward the source of the noise. There was definitely someone over there, but I couldn't quite tell who it was. But once he stepped out of the bushes, I recognized him as Gram, one of the Careers. Okay, so even if I couldn't kill Wyatt's alliance, the Careers would. I turned my head and saw the other three Careers inching closer. I turned back to Gram, and saw him staring back at me. Crap. He saw me, he knew where I was, and once he killed the five people under me, he would kill me too. The other Careers were too far away from Gram, so he couldn't tell them right away. I thought about throwing my knife at him, but he was much too far away for that. Maybe if one of the others killed him. I looked down, they were all still sleeping, but the Careers were getting closer!

Desperate, I grabbed a pine cone, and threw it down at the group. It hit Cinder in the side of the face, and she rolled a bit. But he wasn't awake. Damn. I looked around for another pine cone, but there were none close by. Thinking quickly, I reached back into my backpack and pulled out one of the steel gloves. I threw it as hard as I could at Cinder, and this time it woke her up. She seemed confused at first that a steel glove had fallen out of the sky and woke her, and she searched the sky for a quick second to see where it came from. But her attention was quickly drawn by the sound of a spear flying through the air towards her. She rolled out of the way, the spear hitting the ground where her head just once. She rolled into Crimson and she delved through his pack, looking for something. Gram had drawn a sword and was charging when Cinder pulled a knife out of Crimson's pack and hurled it at him. The knife stuck in Gram's forehead. He staggered a bit before collapsing onto his knees, a thin line of blood inching its way down his face. He then fell forward, dead. The other three Careers sprang from there hiding place as the cannon boomed. This woke the other tributes up, oblivious to what had just happened. Crimson sprang into action fast, pulling two knives out and throwing them at Jett and Iris. Iris and Jett both dodged, Jett taking the opportunity to swing his sword at Crimson's torso. Crimson jumped back out of the way and was supported by Brisk, who tackled Jett to the ground. The impact sent Jett's sword flying, and Brisk began beating Jett's face. But Brisk suddenly stopped, rolling off of Jett, an arrow in his side. The arrow had come from the bow of Siren, who then teamed with Iris in attacking Wyatt and Elodie. Iris threw knives at the pair while Siren shot arrows. Jett was in a fight with Crimson and Cinder. Jett was had retrieved his sword and was swinging viciously at the two. Cinder had also gotten a sword, and for some reason was wearing the steel glove I had dropped. Crimson was defending himself with a pair of long bladed knives. Elodie and Wyatt had taken refuge behind a tree. Wyatt stepped out to throw a knife at Iris but was met with and arrow to the heart by Siren. Two cannon shots rang out to signal the deaths of Brisk and Wyatt. Crimson had abandoned the fight against Jett to help out Elodie, who was effectively trapped. Crimson took one of his knives and hurtled it at Iris. Iris ducked and avoided it, but the knife hit in the unsuspecting shoulder of Siren. Siren screamed in pain as she pulled the knife out. The distraction gave Elodie enough time to retreat into the woods. Siren shot after her, but the injury to her shoulder clearly affected her ability to fire accurately. Jett was beginning to gain the upper hand against Cinder, as he soon struck her in the hand. The steel glove prevent her from losing the limb (so that's what the gloves are for!), but the impact caused her to drop her weapon. Jett raised his sword above his head to deliver a fatal blow, but Cinder dropped to the ground and spun around, tripping Jett. With Jett momentarily dazed, Cinder grabbed one of the nearby packs and dashed into the woods the same way Elodie went. Crimson, realizing the battle was over, dashes off after her. Iris threw one last knife at him in desperation but missed. "Damn it!" yelled Iris loudly.

Now was the scary part, did they know I was up here? Gram had seen me and Cinder knew that the steel glove had to have come from somewhere, but Gram was dead and Cinder had bolted into the woods. I couldn't hear what the remaining Careers were saying to each other, but they seemed angry, incredibly angry. Jett began to collect all of the material the others had left behind, and Iris applied some medicine to Siren's shoulder wound. After Jett finished collecting anything they deemed useful, the Careers began walking back to the cornucopia.

Once I was confident they were gone, I let out a long sigh of relief.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I wanted to post one more chapter today so I whipped this one out. It's pretty short but don't worry, I've got a lot more planned for the next couple of chapters. Hope you guys like it! Reviews appreciated as always!**

There were only twelve of us left. I was halfway there. Eight had died the day before, and four tributes had died this morning. One of them was a Career too. And now each of the alliances was down to three members.

I sat in my safe pine tree contemplating my next move. There were only twelve of us left, so I could probably drop my act soon. Not like it had helped much, nobody even knew where I was. The alliance I had joined hadn't been of much use either. I hadn't seen either Clay or Mara since I got into the arena. Our alliance was actually as big as the other two now. Hungry, I pulled the remaining berries out of my and devoured them. Guess my next move was to find more food.

I pulled myself up and climbed down out of the tree. There was still some blood stained on the ground from the carnage last night. And the Careers hadn't taken all of the leftover supplies too. There was a backpack sitting next to the tree and I scoured it, there were a few small packs of food and some rope. I took the rope and put it in my backpack. I took the food out and started eating it. It was some kind of meat, not sure what kind, but it was good. I tucked the rest into my backpack and searched the rest of the site. There were a few other backpacks, but they were all empty. I saw something silver off in the distance, it was a spilled water bottle. I picked it up and realized it was half full. Checking to make sure it wasn't contaminated; I dripped a bit of it on to a leaf. The water looked clear and the leaf didn't burn, so I figured the water was safe to drink. I took a small swig of the water. Since I didn't feel myself dying, I gulped down the rest of the water.

The sound of someone running toward me drew my attention. I turned to see a girl standing about twenty feet away. She looked scared and was sweaty, like she'd been running for awhile. "She ran up the hill, get her!" I heard someone behind her scream, "Look, there's someone else up there too!" The girl dashed off and I started running too. I turned my head and saw the Careers chasing both of us. I took a quick look at the other girl, she had long light brown hair, and dark skin. An arrow whizzed past my ear and struck a tree in front of me. Shit! They were catching up. I could hear one of the girls laughing as they chase us. I wasn't even sure where I was anymore, all I knew was that I had to get away. The other girl was pulling away, she was faster than me. If I didn't think of something soon, I was going to die. I heard another arrow coming and ducked in fright. The arrow sailed by, just narrowly missing me. I needed to think of something! I thought of some options and decided what I was going to do as the girl in front of me pulled further ahead. Abruptly, I turned to the right and sprinted towards to the swamp. "One of them's going the other way! What do we do?" I heard one of the girls yell. "That's just the girl from District Seven. Don't worry about her, she'll be easy enough to kill of later. Let's focus on the other girl." replied Jett. And eventually, as I continued running, the sound of footsteps behind me disappeared.

I got to the swamp and stopped, catching my breath. There was a scream off in the distance, followed by the sound of a cannon. So my act had come in handy after all. And now there were only ten other tributes. I trekked through the swamp aimlessly, no particular destination in mind. I decided I'd go to the center hill. I recalled the rough sides of the hill, and was hoping there'd be some sort of cave. The Gamemakers seemed to love caves. I remembered from the last few years that there was always some sort of cave, so I was hoping to find it by going to the center.

"Shit!" I heard someone say nearby, "Ahhh! Ow, that hurts!"

I heard some splashing and pulled my knife out of my belt. I gripped it the way I remembered the instructor showing me and walked towards the noise. I stepped into a clearing and saw someone sloshing around in the mud, seething in pain. It was Mara.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I'd again like to thank everyone who's reviewed my story. It actually means a lot. I'm not completely sure how many more chapters this will be, but I'm getting closer to the end. Hope everyone likes it. Reviews are loved.**

"Mara!" I yelled, getting her attention. "Oh, hey Johanna!" she exclaimed. She winced as she walked over to me, her leg was burned pretty bad. I lowered my knife and helped her over to a nearby log. "Thank goodness I found you," she said, "I haven't seen Clay since we got in here and I was on my own for the most part." "Yeah, me too." I told her, "I haven't seen Clay either."

"Where did you get that backpack?" she asked. "I got in when the girl from District Four, Aloe, died from drinking the swamp water." I replied. "Here," I said reaching into my backpack, "Have some food." I handed her some of the food packs that I took earlier. She didn't eat all of them, not wanting to appear too selfish. "Thanks," she said, smiling up at me. "Do you know why so many cannons fired last night?" she asked, "I was asleep when a cannon woke me up. There were like four shots. Did four people actually die after the anthem played?" I pondered whether or not to tell her, and decided there'd be no harm in telling her what happened. So I told her about the previous night, how the Careers had ambushed the other alliance, how I was in the pine tree watching it all, how Cinder had killed Gram, and how Siren killed Brisk and Wyatt. I told her how Elodie, Cinder, and Crimson had all fled into the woods, and I even told her about my run in with the Careers this morning. I didn't tell her that it was my low training score that convinced the Careers to go after the other girl, I just told her that I managed to escape. After telling her everything, she sat thinking everything over. "That explains the cannon this morning." she said, "But there's still one thing I don't understand. If all four of the remaining Careers attacked the other alliance, who was guarding their supplies? Usually, when the Careers go hunting they leave at least one person behind to protect their supplies. Otherwise, someone could just take all of the supplies." I thought this over and it made sense, "Well, who else do you think could be in the alliance?" I asked. "I don't know," I replied. "Maybe they really did just leave their stuff there," said Mara hopefully, "Maybe they just hid it somewhere and took a gamble, assuming no one would even try to steal from them." I was pretty skeptical of this, they wouldn't just leave their material unattended. But I couldn't think of anybody else who could be in the Career alliance. Maybe they did just hide their supplies somewhere and hope that no one came looking. "We could go steal it from them," Mara continued, "They should be behind us, judging from where you said they chased the other girl." It seemed like a bad idea to me. But Mara seemed happy with the idea and it would get me to the center hill where I could hopefully find a cave. "Ok." I said, "Let's go."

We began making our way to the hill in the center. Mara's bad leg slowed us down considerably, but we were still making pretty good progress. And as it turned out, I wasn't the only one who had a weapon. Mara had made a small little slingshot out I some sticks and a vine. I was skeptical about its usefulness at first, but she did manage to kill a pretty big lizard with it later that day. I had found us some safe berries to eat and we had cooked lizard and berries for lunch. Keeping a fire going in the swamp was a pain, but at least we were able to start one thanks to my matches. We were still pretty thirsty even after eating the berries, but there wasn't any good water nearby so we just had to fight through it.

We had made it pretty close to the hill when the day ended. We were close enough to the woods that a bunny made its way to us. Mara had killed it with her slingshot and we cooked it for dinner. Finding good berries in that particular area was a pain. Almost all of the berries I had found were poisonous. But I eventually found us some blackberries, and we ate those too. A cannon sounded from pretty far away that night. We were down to ten tributes. I had made the top ten. Mara was desperately hoping that the dead tribute wasn't Clay. I for one didn't really care whether Clay had died or not. He was going to have to die at some point if I was going to win. Mara was going to have to die at some point too. I looked over at her, she was facing away from me eating some berries. I could slit her throat right now. She wouldn't see it coming, it'd be quick. But I didn't really want to kill her. She was a genuinely nice person, I practically considered her my friend, and I can't remember the last time I had one of those. But I had to forget about emotion. At some point she was going to die, and I couldn't feel sad when she did. But still, I didn't want to be the one to kill her. I could stick with her a little longer, but there were only ten of us left. I'd have to betray her or hope she died soon, otherwise she might decide that it would be best for her to turn on me. I contemplated what to do for the rest of the night.

It was dark, and the Capitol anthem began to play. "Please be alive Clay..." I heard Mara mumble quietly to herself. The faces of the deceased began to appear. First was Gram, from District One. Then came Wyatt and Brisk. The next face to appear was Leigh, the girl from District Ten. She was the other girl from who had gotten a two. She must've been the one Wyatt's alliance killed before sleeping under the tree. Then came Noel and Sepia from District Eleven. I recognized Sepia as the girl who was running with me in the woods. She was the girl the Careers had decided to kill instead of me. The Capitol anthem finished and the last face disappeared from the sky. "So that leaves Siren, Jett, Iris, Crimson, Cinder, Elodie, you, me, Clay, and Cael." rattled off Mara. "How do you know all of their names?" I asked her. I knew almost all of the names myself actually, but that was only because I had encountered them. I couldn't remember who Cael was though. "Clay helped me memorize everybody," Mara explained. "Who's Cael?" I asked, "He's the only one I don't remember." "Cael..." Mara said, trying to remember, "...is from District Ten. He has curly brown hair and is pretty short. He got a four." I was surprised she knew that much about him. "You really did your homework, didn't you?" I commented, and she chuckled. "Well, Clay insisted." she explained, "Well, we should probably find some place to sleep." I nodded in agreement. We found a tree to climb and each found a branch. We cut my newly acquired rope and half and each used it to tie us into the tree so we didn't fall out. Mara fell asleep rather quickly, but I stayed awake longer. I was still contemplating what to do with Mara. I had to make a decision. I thought about it for awhile before finally making up my mind. With the nagging question finally gone, I was able to fall asleep.

The next morning, Mara and I climbed down and she put away my rope. She reminded me that today would be the day we stole the supplies from the Careers. I nodded solemnly in response. Mara killed another bunny and we cooked it. She sat on a log and ate some, I stood nearby and ate some too. But Mara was thirsty so she asked if I could pick some berries. I went and picked some from a nearby bush and gave them to her. She ate them, appreciating the juice that the berries contained. I just watched as she ate them, my palms sweaty. Mara's body began to go limp and her eyes started to close. She fell to the side and landed on the log. I watched as the life left her body. A cannon sounded, and only then did I realize I was crying. I tried to pull myself together, but the sight of her body kept bringing tears to my eyes. I turned and looked away, I didn't want to do it. I really didn't want to...But it had to happen. And the sooner I did it less I would have to worry about it. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself. I'm stronger than this. I can't let emotion get in the way. I finally collected myself and turned back around. I collected all of my materials and took Mara's slingshot. I walked away with tears in my eyes as a hovercraft came to take her body away.

**A/N: I felt really bad about killing off Mara like that, I actually really liked her character. Oh well, I had to kill her off at some point. I think you guys are really going to like the next few chapters, I've got some good stuff planned. Hope you all liked this chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter. I was excited about it as I wrote it, but looking back now I'm not sure how I feel about the final result. I think it turned out okay. **

**But anyways, a quick thanks to Brothers of myth, Nix911 (x3), and iskandaria (x3) for reviewing. Reviews are always appreciated.**

And now there were only nine of us. Only eight other tributes stood in the way of me and victory. It was just me, the Careers (Siren, Jett, and Iris), the remnants of Wyatt's alliance (Crimson, Cinder, and Elodie), the other member of my alliance (Clay), and the boy from District Ten (Cael). I had completely collected myself since Mara's death. I was now completely focused on winning. Now that Mara was gone, I wasn't going anywhere near the Career supplies. Maybe that's why Cael was still alive; maybe he was the person the Careers had gotten to guard their stuff.

After walking for a while, I reached the side of the hill. The incline was really steep, and looking at it now I guessed that it was 100 feet high. The sides were rocky a bit rocky, there had to be a cave somewhere nearby. I began to trek around the base of the hill, keeping my knife in hand just in case. Now would be a pretty shitty time to get attacked. I continued to circumnavigate the hill, looking for any signs of an entrance to a cave. I had walked for about an hour without finding anything. I didn't even know where I was or how far I had walked. For all I know, I could've walked around the hill ten times. I was getting hungry and decided that I should look for something to eat. I scanned the woods for any signs of life. Something rustled in the leaves nearby, and I turned to see what it was. A lizard was crawling nearby. I approached it slowly with my knife, not wanting to startle it. But as I got closer, the lizard noticed me and darted away. I was able to follow it for a bit, but then it disappeared. Literally, it disappeared. One second it was there and the next it was gone. I examined the area where the lizard had disappeared, when my foot suddenly fell into the ground. Caught off guard, I let out a yelp and clung to the solid ground behind me. Kicking my leg around a bit, the ground in front of me seemingly fell in, exposing the entrance to an underground cave. Yes!

I jumped down into the cave. The fall wasn't too far, but on the landing my leg scraped against the rocky side of the cave. The wall took off part of my pants, and skinned my leg. But other than that there wasn't any notable damage done. The 'ground' that had fallen was just a tarp that was camouflaged really well. Oh crap. What if this was somebody else's cave? I looked around some more and saw several packs sitting in front of me, as well as a circle where a small fire once was. This was definitely someone else's cave. Looking ahead I saw some weapons piled carelessly on the ground. I ran over and took what I thought I might need. There were a few knives and I took those. There was a bow and some arrows but I decided I didn't need those. I scanned the rest of the weapons, looking for anything I might've missed. There was a handle sticking out from under one of the backpacks. I crawled over to it and pulled it out. An axe! It was an axe! I was so excited; I might've even let out a girlish giggle or two. I held it in my hand, trying to get a good feel for the weight. I tucked my new knives into my belt and ran towards the entrance.

But suddenly, my foot caught on something and I tripped and fell. Turning around, I saw that I had tripped over a bucket full of water. I got over and got the bucket off of my foot. That was when I noticed the bucket next to me. It was full of an odd, thin, green substance. Next to the bucket was an odd steel instrument. I picked it up and examined it, it was a filter. So whoever's been living here must be filtering the algae out the water. I pulled the tarp out my backpack and ripped off a piece. I dipped it into the bucket and lightly touched the green substance. The piece of tarp began to burn, confirming that the green substance was indeed the algae. A sponsor must've sent the filter. I tucked the filter into my backpack, finding clean water wasn't going to be nearly as difficult now. I took the bucket with the water that I stumbled over and drank what was left. Then I got a brilliant idea. I took the steel glove out of my backpack and dipped it into the algae. It didn't burn. So steel wasn't affected by the algae. I put the steel glove on and cupped some algae in my hand. Then, I coated the blade of my axe with the algae. Now my favorite weapon was twice as deadly. If I cut someone, bleeding wouldn't be the only thing they'd have to worry about.

"I still can't figure out how he got away," said a voice from outside of the cave. Uh oh. "The kid's fast, but don't worry, we'll get him." came a different voice I recognized as Cinder's. "Let's go back to the cave." said another girl, who I reasoned must be Elodie. The first person must've been Crimson. This was not good. I scrambled away with my axe, looking for a hiding spot. I ran to the back of the cave, where it was darkest, searching for some place where they might not find me. I found a small rut in the back of the cave and crouched in it, just as the three of them jumped into the cave. "Guys, someone was in here." said Elodie. No shit Captain Obvious. I didn't exactly make an effort to make my presence unknown. The camouflaged tarp was still lying on the ground, a bunch of their weapons were missing, their water was spilled, and their filter was gone. "Yeah, we can see that." chided Crimson. "Who do you think it was?" asked Cinder. "I'm not sure." replied Crimson. "Well, we chased the District Ten boy into the swamp earlier, and I don't think it was the Careers. So it was either the girl from District Seven, or one of the District Eight tributes." reasoned Elodie. "Hey guys," called Crimson, "look at this." "What is it?" asked Cinder. "It's some sort of fabric, from someone's clothing." answered Crimson. "Well, whoever fell in here must've scraped some of their clothing off," figured Cinder, "Can you tell who it might belong too?" "Wait," said Elodie, "That's the same color as Wyatt's clothing, it was the District Seven girl!" Damn. So they figured out it was me. But at least they didn't know I was still in the cave. "Check to make sure she's not still in here," ordered Cinder, "there's a chance that she could still be in here." "I'll look for her," said Crimson.

Not good. Not good. "What do I do if I find her?" asked Crimson. "Bring her out here so we can give that bitch what she deserves," hissed Cinder, "Besides, the Capitol loves a good gory death. Don't worry about being able to beat her. Her training score and interview told us all we need to know about her." I could hear Crimson getting closer towards my hiding spot. I held my axe tightly in my left hand and slowly pulled out one of my knives. Cinder was about to be in for a real shock. I didn't like killing people, but these three were about to be the outlet for all the pent up frustration and anger I've been keeping wrapped up for the past week. The Capitol citizens watching were about to be floored. Crimson stepped closer to my spot, and I tightened my grip on my knife. I had to time this right, I needed a quick kill. The sound of Crimson's steps continued to rise in volume. Just a little bit closer...I looked up and could see the tip of the sword he was holding in front of him. He took one more step and I sprung into action. I hopped up, turned, and quickly slashed his throat. He hadn't even seen me coming. I stepped forward and threw my knife at an unsuspecting Elodie, who had just turned to see Crimson fall to the ground. The knife hit her right in between the eyes, she died instantly. Cinder scrambled to her bow and switched my axe from my left to my right hand. She had just picked up an arrow when I threw the axe at her. She had just pulled the bowstring back when the axe hit her square in the chest. She dropped the bow and staggered back into the cave wall before sinking to the ground. My body was rushing with adrenaline and I gave myself a few seconds to settle down. My hands were trembling as I looked at the scene around me. I had just killed three people. I knew it was wrong to feel this way, but it almost felt good...a strange sense of accomplishment, pride, and confidence. I could just imagine Caesar's commentary:

_"Now who saw that one coming! Johanna Mason! The girl from District Seven who could! She's not nearly as weak as she appeared! Not only did she betray and kill her best friend and closest ally this morning, but now she's taken down Crimson, Elodie, and Cinder in a matter of seconds! Who would've thought that Johanna Mason was actually a vicious killer? She's definitely one to watch. She could potentially win this whole thing!"_

But then I remembered that these were people, kids like me. Kids who probably didn't deserve to die. Then again, Cinder has called me a bitch and wanted to brutally butcher me...Two cannon shots fired, signaling the deaths of the three people around me. Wait a second, two cannon shots? One of them was still alive. I looked at Crimson's limp body, there was no way he survived that gash to the throat. I walked over to Elodie and pulled the knife out of her head, she was dead too. That was when Cinder violently began to cough. I walked over to her, and saw that she had coughed up a significant amount of blood. She wasn't dead, but she wasn't far from it. I stepped on her shoulder and violently yanked the axe out of her chest, revealing a giant wound. I wanted to just end it, put her out of her misery. But I knew that that wasn't what the Capitol wanted. They wanted to see a gruesome death. They saw me as a vicious killer now, and I could stand to win a few sponsors over. So I did something I knew I was going to feel horrible about later. I put on my steel glove and picked up a handful of the algae from the bucket. Then I walked back to Cinder, and slowly poured the algae into her wound. It immediately made a horrible sizzling sound and Cinder shook from the excruciating pain. She tried to scream but was too weak, instead coughing up more blood. I watched, horrified, as the wound turned awful shades of red and pink and small bits of steam escaped. But my face to anybody else watching me was solemn, one that showed no remorse, no guilt. But inside the pain ate away at me. How I could be capable of something so sinister? So evil? Eventually, Cinder's body stopped thrashing and the cannon fired, signaling her death. By then, her chest had become to horrible to describe. The sight of Cinder made me want to throw up. I turned and climbed out of the cave. I walked away and waited for the Capitol to come and take their bodies away.

A lot of people called me a cynic. And I admit, I'm definitely not a people person. I didn't like most of the people I met, I even hated some. But no one deserved this. Cinder didn't deserve to die like that. No one did. No one deserved to be placed in an arena and forced to kill other kids for the entertainment of a bunch of entitled shitheads. I hated the Capitol. I hated them for putting us all in the arena. I hated them for making us do things like this to each other, things like I had done to Cinder. I now understood why my brother had ranted about how evil the Capitol was when I was little. I was still determined to win. I wasn't going to let this stop me, I was going to keep fighting. But God help the Capitol when I got out. Somehow, someway, I was going to hurt them. They were going to fear me. They were going to wish that they hadn't ever started the Hunger Games in the first place. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

I went and got some water from the swamp to kill time. I didn't have a bucket with me, so I pulled out the tarp and rope. I folded the edges of the tarp upwards and tied the rope around it, making a closed bag. I pulled the bag open a little. Large enough so I could pour water in, but small enough so that the rope didn't just fall off of the tarp. My steel glove still on, I cupped some water and poured it through the filter and into the bag. The filter seemed to be working; a significant amount of algae was building up in it. After a few scoops, I put the filter down and slowly dipped my finger into the bag. I tensed as my finger hit the water, bracing for a burning sensation that never came. The filter had worked. I picked up my bag and began to drink out of it. The water was cool and refreshing. An object landed on the ground next to me and I quickly realized it was gift from a sponsor. I have sponsors! I opened my gift and pulled out a glistening silver bucket. I groaned and rolled my eyes. I appreciated the gift, but it would've been useful earlier when I was using the bag. But I decided to not let the gift go to waste. I placed the filter over the bucket and scooped water into it until the bucket was three-quarters full. Then, I carried the bucket and algae-filled filter back to the cave. By the time I had gotten back, all of the bodies were gone. I sighed heavily in relief; I don't think I would've been able to look back at Cinder's body again without vomiting. I cleaned off my weapons and sorted through the supplies left over. There enough knives that I was able to line my entire belt with them, I even sorted them from longest to shortest. I used some rope to create a strap to hold my axe on my back. I played around with it a bit and got it so that it was easy to pull out and put back in. There was some leftover meat and a lot of berries stockpiled. Some of the meat was pretty old but most of it looked good. I went and sorted through the berries myself, I didn't want to die because of a mistake one of them made while picking. It took me a while, but I checked all of the berries and they were all fine. I ate the largest meal I had had in the arena that night. I cooked and ate three bunnies and ate four handfuls of berries. By the end of my meal, I was completely full. That evening, I spent some time replacing the algae on the blade of my axe, and I put some algae on my longer knives.

That night, I looked up into the sky when the Capitol anthem began to play. The only faces to appear we're the faces of the people I killed: Crimson, Cinder, Elodie, and Mara. There were only six of us left. I made the top six! It was just me, Clay, Cael, and the Careers (Siren, Iris and Jett). I wondered what everybody back at District Seven thought of me making this far. They were probably stunned that I made it this far. I giggled when I thought of Lora's reaction might be after seeing make it this far. Kalkaska was probably happy. "Aaron would be so proud of you..." Kalkaska's last words to me echoed in my head. Yeah. Yeah, he probably would be proud of me, for making the top six. Then I remembered, this was as far as he had gotten. He had gotten to the top six, but then...I stopped thinking about it. Thinking about Aaron wasn't going to do me any good right now. Instead, I though of what Puff, Flip, and Brittany thought. Puff was probably ecstatic. She had probably thought out district had lost its shot of getting a victor when Wyatt had died. She had probably lost hope when she saw Crimson looking for me in the cave. But she was probably giddy now, hopping about excitedly like a child who had just been given a cookie. Brittany was probably happy too. She was probably surprised, she probably didn't expect me to make it quite as far as I had, but she was probably happy regardless. Flip must be stupefied. He probably sat there dumbly when I killed all three of the kids in the cave, just like that. He was probably shocked that I had made it farther than his favorite, Wyatt. But to see me take out the rest of Wyatt's alliance and make the top six? That was probably too much for him to even comprehend.

Once I stared feeling tired, I got up and put the camouflaged tarp up, hiding the cave. I saw the lizard that had led me to the cave earlier scurry by. I smiled as it passed, without him I wouldn't be in the convenient position I was in now. There had been a large blanket in one of the backpacks that someone must've gotten from a sponsor. I laid down on one half of it so I didn't have to feel the rocky floor of the cave and pulled the other half of the blanket around me to keep myself warm. I took my backpack and used it as a pillow. It took me a little while to find a position on the backpack I liked, but the backpack was much more comfortable than a pine tree. As I settled down, I heard a small thud hit the tarp hiding the cave. I looked up and realized that a sponsor had sent me a gift. I got up and climbed to the top of the cave. I reached up through the side of the tarp and pulled the gift in, resetting the tarp when I had gotten it inside. I twisted the lid off of the gift and opened it. It was a pillow.

**A/N: So Johanna made the top six! I wasn't completely sure about her actions in the cave, but that's what I felt her character would've done. I don't know, what did you guys think? Review and let me know what you thought of the chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that this is the tenth chapter, and that the story's almost complete. I've decided that I'll finish at fifteen chapters. And although that may sound like a lot, they shouldn't be too long.**

**Thanks to amethystaquamarine43azure for reviewing! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated.**

I woke up the next morning fully rested. It was probably the best night of sleep I had gotten in the arena. I got up and started a fire, which I used to cook some rabbit meat. I had a nice breakfast and sat down to think about what I was going to do for the day. The Careers were still out there and they were three-strong, which made even leaving the cave a scary option. Hopefully they'd start to turn on each other soon. Some Career alliances stayed together until everybody else was dead, but some starting turning on each other as early as the top ten. It only took one person to destroy the alliance. I just had to hope either Siren, Jett, or Iris figured they didn't need the other two. I decided that I would just stay in my cave for as long as I could, it was safe in here. I had lots of berries, some meat, and a good amount of water. My only concern was that the Careers might stumble into the cave. But if they did, I'd at least have the element of surprise, and a bunch of weapons.

I heard the sounds of people talking just above the cave. Careers! Speak of the devil...I grabbed my poisonous axe and hunched near the cave entrance. Judging by their shadows cast on the tarp, I guessed they were 5-10 feet away from the edge of the cave. "You okay?" I heard Jett ask. "Yeah I'm fine," said one of the girls, who I guessed was Iris. She must've injured herself somehow, because she groaned a bit and muttered an expletive. "I think I have some medicine for it," said the girl I assumed was Siren. I heard someone shuffle through a backpack followed by a sigh of pleasure. Whatever the medicine was, it must've been working. "You good to go?" said Siren. "Yeah," replies Iris. "Good, let's find the other two tributes." said Jett, "An even if we don't find either today, we kill the other kid as soon as we get back. I still don't think it's a great idea leaving him alone with all of our stuff." Iris spoke up, "Relax Jett, he's a baby. He won't be able to do anything. He's probably scared out of his wits. He won't pull anything because he knows we'll kill him if he does." "But," Siren began, "he also knows we'll eventually turn on him. He may be a baby but he's not stupid. He knows we'll eventually kill him, so why shouldn't he try something?" Jett spoke up again, "Okay, so we'll kill him when we get back. But we'll be careful, just in case he pulls anything." I heard them begin to walk off and waited until I couldn't hear their footsteps. Then I got my backpack, put my axe in my strap, and climbed out of the cave.

I know, this was pretty risky. But I was extremely curious, which boy were they talking about? Who was guarding their stuff? I figured I'd have a lot of time before the Careers got back, but I raced up the hill anyway, not wanting to risk cutting it close. The climb up the hill was rather tedious. The hill was incredibly steep and was pretty lucky too. I recalled my first day in the arena when I had fallen and rolled down the sound of the hill, looking at the hill now I was really lucky I hadn't broken anything on any of the rocks. "Hey girlie!" shouted someone below me. I whirled around to see a knife hurtling at my face. Oh, fuck! I leapt to the side, the knife sticking in the tree behind me. I heard Iris cackle menacingly. I picked myself up off of the ground to see her throw another knife. I turned around and the knife stuck in my backpack. I scurried behind a tree and drew one of my algae covered knives. I would've pulled my axe out, but the tree I was behind was so thin that part of my arm would've been exposed. "Come on out," she cooed, "If you do, I promise, it'll be quick." I scoffed quietly at her lie. There was no way she'd make it quick. I stepped out and threw my knife at her. She almost didn't see it coming at first, but she ducked just in time. I quickly drew another knife and chucked it, forcing her to back behind a tree. I pulled out another knife, trying to keep track of all of them. I had started with twelve knives in my belt, five covered with algae. I had thrown two knives with algae, and the knife I was holding had algae too. I took two steps forward, waiting for her to pop out. She popped out, but it wasn't on the side I was expecting. Before I could react, her knife was already speeding towards me. I tried to dodge but the knife stuck in my left shoulder.

I collapsed on the ground and let out a small scream. I looked up at her and she smiled before drawing two long bladed knives. I grit my teeth and pulled the knife out of my shoulder. It hurt, but that wasn't my biggest worry. I began to crawl backwards to try to escape her. "You know, when Siren sent me back up here to get some more arrows, I thought it would be a waste of time," she said. She continued to approach, and she had begun scraping her knives against each other, creating an awful sound. "Siren had plenty of arrows," she continued, "So this seemed like a pointless venture. But what a surprise I found." She had reached me and stomped her foot into my injured shoulder, sending waves of pain through my body. I screeched a bit in pain and she just laughed, increasing the pressure on my shoulder. She leaned in and smiled wickedly at me. "Now which knife would you like me to cut you open with first?" she said, still smiling, "The left or the right?" Her face was so close to mine that she didn't notice my right hand draw a short dagger from my belt. "Neither," I breathed before spitting in her face. She lurched back and growled in anger. The pressure on my shoulder increased, and I watched as she raised her right arm. Once her arm was all the way back, I took my dagger and stuck it in the back of her Achilles' heel. She let out a horrible scream in pain and I threw her off me. She pulled the knife out and tried to stand up, but quickly found at that putting any weight on her left foot was going to be a challenge. I pulled out an algae covered knife and slashed her right arm before pulling myself off of the ground. She screamed again in pain as the algae burned at the cut. I could see the anger in her eyes as I stood and reached back for my axe. Still lying on the ground, she reached for a knife in her belt and threw it sideways at me. I jumped to the side and saw the knife whirl by me. I turned back to face her and suddenly she was flying at me. She tackled me and we tumbled down the hill a good ways. I had been able to get my axe halfway out of the strap before she had tackled me, but the fall had dislodged the axe from my grip. We both landed on the ground sideways and I scrambled to my axe. She quickly drew two knives and threw one at me as she tried to get up. The sharp pain in her heel as she stood up disrupted her throw, and the knife was nowhere close to me. Right as she threw her knife, I reached my axe. I picked it up and charged her. She raised her other knife but didn't get a chance to throw it. I flipped my axe around and smashed the side of the blade against her head with all of my strength. There was a horrible cracking sound and Iris flew down the hill. I stood there for a few seconds catching my breath. Eventually, the sound of Iris tumbling down the hill stopped, and I walked down to inspect the scene.

Iris had rolled almost all of the way down the hill. She wasn't dead, but she was unconscious (A cracked skull will do that to you...). I took the knife out of her hand and stabbed her in the chest, slowly sinking the knife into her heart. I decided to leave the knife there, the audience would like that. I turned and began my march back up the hill when the cannon sounded. Only five of us left. I got back to the spot where Iris had attacked me and collected all of the knives I had thrown. For some reason, I didn't feel nearly as bad about killing Iris as I did when I killed Cinder. It was probably because she was about to butcher me...Or it could be because I was getting good at killing people, she was a Career after all.

I picked up where I had left off on my hike up the hill. My shoulder hurt, but it wasn't anything too bad. After a few minutes, I had made it to the top. I skulked through the woods surrounding the cornucopia silently. As far as I could tell, there was no one guarding the supplies. Assuming that no one was around, I stepped out of the woods. My foot hit a wire and I jumped backwards as a trap sprang in front of me. If I hadn't jumped back, I'd be in a net dangling from a tree. I turned to the left and saw Clay kneeling only about twenty feet away. Clay! I was almost certain that it would've been Cael guarding the supplies. But the Careers had somehow coaxed Clay into guarding their stuff. Clay had been tying something, setting another trap by the looks of it. He had a bow slung over his shoulder along with a set of arrows. I wondered if I could work the alliance angle and somehow gain his trust. Then I could easily kill him. But Clay quickly pulled out his bow and shot an arrow at me. I saw it coming in plenty of time and dived into the woods, out of the way. "Oh, Johanna! Was that you?" Clay said quickly, "I-I'm so sorry for shooting at you. I-I thought you were Elodie!" He was such a horrible liar. How stupid did he think I was? Now he was trying to work the alliance angle? Besides, Elodie had brown hair and I had brown. Someone with such a great memory wouldn't forget something like that. Even I remembered Elodie's hair color. And Elodie was dead too! Did he seriously expect me to buy that? "C'mon Johanna, we're allies! I just want to talk." said Clay, but I could hear him load another arrow as he stepped into the woods. I had had just enough time to pull out my axe and was now crouched behind a large oak tree, gripping the axe tightly. Clay and I were allies, but it was the top five and he had abandoned our alliance for the Careers anyway. He had to die if I was to win. My grip on my axe tightened as he stepped closer to my tree; he didn't know where I was. Once he has stepped closer enough, I popped out and swung my axe. The swing broke through the bow he was holding and cut off his thumb. He winced and staggered backwards, but I stepped forward and swung again. This swing went right through his neck, decapitating him. The cannon sounded. Only four of us left.

I turned and hurried back down the hill as fast as I could. I had been up here for quite a long time and Jett and Siren could be back any minute. I didn't even worry about the supplies; I had plenty in my cave. Besides, who knows what other traps Clay had set up. I reached the bottom of the hill and searched for the area where my cave was. This might be a challenge, I wasn't entirely sure where it was and the tarp camouflaged the entrance really well. Fortunately, I found the place where I had gotten water from the day before and was able to trace my steps back to the entrance. I slipped under the tarp and into my cave. I was safe.

Killing Clay wasn't nearly as traumatizing as killing Mara or Cinder was. I was successfully blocking my emotions. Emotions weren't going to help me win; I could mourn when I was a victor. I still hated the Capitol, I still felt bad about killing people, but I had to stow away all of my pent up emotions for later. I never heard Jett or Siren pass my cave, they must have come back another way. I wondered if they were confused by the two cannon shots fired earlier. I bet they were mystified by what could've happened to Iris, and Clay for that matter. The wound on my shoulder had actually turned pretty nasty, and I think gangrene was beginning to develop. But I didn't have any medicine and I didn't get any from my sponsors. It wasn't that bad anyway. The pain was only a minor inconvenience and the gangrene probably wouldn't do any horrible damage for a while. For the second night in a row, the only faces to appear in the sky were the faces of people I killed: Iris and Clay. There were only four of us left: me, Siren, Jett, and Cael. I made the top four! I had made it farther than Aaron had.

"Tributes!" boomed Caesar's voice throughout the arena, "There will be a Feast tomorrow at the cornucopia, four hours after the sun rises. I recommend that you all attend. There will be something that all of you need. May the odds be ever in your favor."

I supposed that the item that I needed was medicine for my shoulder. But I didn't really need that. What was it that the Careers needed? Cael...there could be a billion things that boy needed, but I still hadn't encountered him. I wouldn't try to retrieve my medicine, but I would go to the Feast to watch, to see what happened. I ate a large (and late) dinner, consuming the rest of my berries and drinking the rest of my water. I cooked and ate some meat, but there was still some more leftover. I could just go get water the next morning. I laid out my pillow and wrapped myself in my blanket, and eventually I fell asleep.

**A/N: Don't worry, I didn't forget the bad news. The bad news is that my Spring Break ends tomorrow, and I'm also going to be hosting a German exchange student. This means that I won't be able to update this story nearly as often as I have been. I've been updating this story once or twice a day, but that'll probably change to once every two days. Sorry about that.**

**Also, sorry for any typos. I've been writing most of these on my iPhone, so it's harder for me to check for those. I know, writing on an iPhone isn't the smartest way to write. But it's one of the reasons I've been able to update so quickly, since I can write while I'm away from home. I may go back after I finish and fix up everything.**

**Once again, reviews are amazing. So if you read the story, please take the time to let me know what you think.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I'm sorry that I haven't posted in a while, and I'm sorry that this chapter is super short. But I felt like I should get something up, and this chapter works with how I have the rest of the story planned.**

**Thanks to amethystaquamarine43azure, iskandaria, FanFicReader13, and Theatergirl6 for reviewing. And to answers Theatergirl6's question, I can't actually upload the story from my phone. What I do, is I write the story on Notes, and then e-mail it to myself when I'm done. Then, when I'm at a computer, I just copy and paste the story from my e-mail into a Word document and upload it.**

After waking up the next morning, I got up and peeked out of my cave. The sun was out, but it couldn't have been out for too long. I guessed that the sun had been up for about an hour, maybe two. I left my cave only briefly to get more water and berries, but I took my axe with me. I didn't want to die because I left my shelter without a weapon. Fortunately, I didn't run into any of the other tributes, and I had a filling breakfast. I was feeling extremely anxious about today, a victor would probably be crowned before the sun went down. Who wouldn't be anxious?

I went over my plan again. I was going to go up to the cornucopia, but I wasn't going to leave the woods. Clay could've set up hundreds of traps before I killed him. I was just going to watch and see what happened. I would only step out if two of them died and I had a clean shot at the remaining one. I wasn't going to be seen, no one else would know I was there. My hair had gotten a lot longer than I normally preferred, so I tore off a piece of my tarp and used it to tie my hair back into a ponytail.

I reapplied the algae to my axe and some of my knives before stowing my knives in my belt and placing my axe in the strap on my back. "You can do this Johanna," I reminded myself, "Three other people. Just outlast three others, and then you can go home." I took a deep breath, and exited my cave.

**A/N: Yeah, incredibly short, I know. But don't worry, the next chapter will be MUCH longer and have a lot more action. I pretty much have the rest of the story planned out in my head, except for the last two chapters after she wins (spoiler!...not really). But if you have any suggestions or things you want to see in or out of the arena, let me know in a review and I'll take them into consideration.**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I'm really sorry that this took so long! But I haven't had much time to write. Thanks to amethystaquamarine43azure, Lainylovesyou, and Theatergirl6 for reviewing. Hope you guys like the chapter.**

I slowly made my way up the hill, making sure to be as quiet as possible. I didn't want to draw attention from any other tributes going to the Feast. It took longer than usual because of my carefulness to avoid making noise, but I eventually got to the top of the hill. I quickly scanned my immediate surroundings to make sure no one was nearby. I listened closely for any signs of life, but heard nothing. I walked through the woods even more carefully than I had walked up the hill. I took another step forward and heard a snap on the ground under my feet. Suddenly, my feet were yanked upwards and I felt myself being pulled into the air. The tugging sensation stopped and I opened my eyes, not aware that I had even closed them in the first place. My hands were dangling below my head and I could feel my ankles tightly held together. Damn it. I hadn't expected there to be any traps in the woods around the cornucopia. I reached up and pulled one of the knives out of my belt, then used it to saw through the rope holding me up. I fell to the ground and untied the bit of rope still binding my ankles. Hopefully no one had heard me hit the ground. I slipped my knife back into my belt and continued toward the cornucopia.

I got through the rest of the woods without getting caught in any other traps, and stood at the edge. A table was propped up in front of the cornucopia with four bags. Each bag had a number on it, representing who each bag was for. Siren's bag was on the far left, next to Jett's. My bag was the second from the right, and Cael's was on the far right. I reminded myself not to leave the woods. I found a comfortable spot in a bush where I could remain mostly hidden but still see what was happening around me. No one had even attempted to take their bag yet.

The sound of footsteps nearby drew my attention. I turned my head and saw Siren standing only a few feet from me. She had her bow drawn and was staring out at the cornucopia. I didn't think she had seen me, otherwise I'd probably be dead, but I was still too scared to move. I considered reaching for my axe or one of my knives, but if I created any sort of noise, she'd probably turn and kill me on the spot, so I decided not to risk it. Her right side was hurt pretty badly and her shirt was stained with blood. What had happened to her? She and Jett must've turned on each other at some point after Iris and Clay had died. Her left arm looked pretty hurt too. How badly was Jett hurt? A noise from near the cornucopia drew our attention. Cael was making a mad dash for the table. His arm was lacerated and he had a pretty bad limp, but he was still moving pretty quickly. I saw Siren take a few indecisive steps forward, as if she were trying to decide whether or not to run out and kill him. Then suddenly Cael fell to the ground and let out a screech in pain. He had been caught in one of Clay's traps, and he had landed awkwardly on his bad leg. He tried to move but let out yelps when he put any sort of weight on his injured leg. Out of the corner on my eye, I saw Jett running towards the table too. Jett's left arm had bad wound that I assumed came from one of Siren's arrows. He was almost at the table when Siren sprang into action. Jett grabbed his bag and was met with an arrow to his already wounded arm. He grunted as he pulled the arrow out and tossed it aside. Jett pulled out a shield that was strapped to his back as Siren charged at him, firing another at him. Jett easily blocked the arrow easily, and he charged at Siren too. Poor Cael was just sort of lying on the ground awkwardly, occasionally making efforts to crawl away before pain overwhelmed him. When Jett got close to Siren, he swung it at her head. But she was quick, ducking below it and using an arrow she had just pulled out to stab him in the thigh. Jett screamed in anger as he brought down the shield again, this time hitting her square in the head. The blow rendered Siren unconscious, and Jett took the time to take the arrow out of his thigh. He took the medicine out of his bag and rubbed it on some of his wounds before checking to make sure Siren was still out. "I'll be back or you in a second," said Jett coldly. He grabbed one of Siren's arrows and walked over to Cael who, despite all the time he had had while Siren and Jett were fighting, had only managed to move a few feet from the trap that crippled him. Cael attempted to scurry away but got kicked in his bad leg by Jett. Cael howled in pain, and Jett flipped him over so that he was on his back. Jett raised his arm and brought the arrow down into Cael's neck. Cael's body shook as his throat squirted out blood. After a few moments of thrashing, Cael's body stopped moving, but blood continued to pour out of his throat. The cannon sounded.

Jett turned so that his back was facing me. I could do it. Siren was out cold, so I could charge him, catch him off guard, kill him, and then kill Siren. In a spur of the moment decision, I sprang from my hiding place, drawing my axe as I ran. Jett hadn't seen me, and he was still walking slowly towards Siren. I could do it. I was going to do it. I was going to win the Hunger Games.

And then I activated one of Clay's traps.

The trap closed on my ankles and I fell flat on my face. Jett turned around and smiled. "Well look what we have here," said Jett as he began walking towards me, "the weakling from District Seven." I quickly pulled the trap off of my ankles and picked up my axe. "Now what are you going to do with that?" laughed Jett. I swung the axe at him and he held up his shield to block it. He seemed taken aback by my strength and my blow knocked his arm away and caused him to stagger a bit. I swung again and he wasn't able to pull his arm back fast enough. The axe sliced his chest and he growled in a mix of pain and anger. He swung his shield at me and I wasn't able to react fast enough. The shield hit me in the side of the head, and sent me falling backwards. I pulled a knife out of my belt and hurled it at him but he ducked under it. The sound of a wire being pulled back drew his attention away from me. He turned and barely dodged an arrow that had been fired at his head. Siren was awake! I couldn't decide whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Jett raised his shield again and blocked another one of Siren's arrows. I pulled myself up off of the ground and chucked another knife at Jett. He turned and blocked it, and then quickly turned to block an arrow from Siren. Siren turned and fired an arrow at me but I dodged it too. Siren fired her last arrow at Jett and pulled out two long bladed knives. She charged Jett and brought down both of her knives, but Jett held up his shield and blocked them. I took out another knife and threw it at a preoccupied Siren. It hit her in the arm and she growled at me angrily. She kicked Jett away from her and turned and whirled one of her knives at me. I moved to the right and it flew over my right shoulder, but she charged at me with the other knife. I switched my axe back to my right hand and used it to block the swing of her knife. She grabbed the handle of my axe and pulled me forward, before kneeing me in the stomach with all of her strength. She tossed my axe to the side and because I had a tight grip on the axe, I went down with it. Jett came in and dove into Siren, tackling her to the ground. Jett punched Siren once, but Siren hit Jett with the butt of her knife, knocking Jett off of her. Siren and Jett both picked themselves off of the ground, as did I. I pulled out another knife and the three of us stood there, like a Mexican standoff.

And that was when the ground began to sink...

**A/N: Next chapter's the finale! I'll try to post the next chapter as soon as possible, but that could potentially be a while because I'm even busier this week. Review and let me know what you think! Review if you have any questions or suggestions too!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Thank you for being patient! I'm really sorry this took so long, but I just haven't had time to write.**

**Thanks to bailyflan, Theatergirl6, and amethystaquamrine34azure for reviewing. I really liked how this chapter turned out (it might be my favorite so far) so please let me know what you think by reviewing!**

The sudden shift of the ground knocked all three of us off balance. Siren and Jett both fell to the ground, but I managed to stay on feet, stumbling backwards a bit. I put my axe back in the strap so I didn't risk losing it. Suddenly, the cornucopia flipped up on its side so the opening was on the bottom. The back of the cornucopia (now the top) twisted and contorted until it former a point, making the cornucopia look more like a cone. The center of the arena where the cornucopia was then began to sink into the ground alarmingly quickly. The ground around me began to sink to and I struggled to not fall and slide down into the cornucopia. I turned and fell on my hands and knees as the sink hole continue to grow and deepen. I scrambled frantically to get out, Siren and Jett doing the same. I allowed myself one look down at the bottom of the sink hole. The bottom exposed the opening of the cornucopia and was incredibly muddy, but after a few seconds water began to replace the mud. The water reached the opening of the cornucopia and the sinking stopped. The hole was probably over 50 feet deep and the three of us were probably about half way down it. I heard the snap of a wire and instinctively rolled quickly away from where I was. Sure enough, Siren had fired an arrow right where my head had been. She had managed to find another arrow during the sinking. I considered trying to hit her with a knife throw, but she was pretty far away and probably out of my range. She'd most likely dodge it too, and I needed my knives. A loud mechanical noise began we all looked at the obvious source, the cornucopia. I looked down and saw that the water was being pulled up out of the ground and into the mouth of the cornucopia. Suddenly, out of the top of the cornucopia, came small specks of...something. Then I realized what it probably was and took off towards the woods. Sure enough, when the specks showered on me, I felt my skin begin to burn. I kept running until I was into the woods, and I knew that Siren and Jett had probably done the same. Fucking Gamemakers, can't they come up with anything original? The algae thing has been a bit overplayed. I really shouldn't have asked that the question. A loud cracking caught my attention, and I turned to see a massive pine tree falling in my direction. I quickly got out of the way, but several more cracking sounds followed. Not good. Trees were starting to fall left and right and I frantically scrambled to avoid getting crushed by their massive trunks. The trees continued to fall all over the hill, as did out cover from the algae rain. Aside from dodging and diving away from the falling trees, I had to deal with the occasional yet painful burn of the algae.

I had just avoided being crushed by an enormous oak when a knife struck me in my wounded shoulder. I winced in pain and saw Siren approaching me. I ducked as she threw a second knife aimed right at my head. I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and hid behind a nearby tree. However, I could feel my cover falling away from me as the tree fell to its side. Great. I turned just in time to catch a glimpse of Siren before she roughly tackled me to the ground. Unlike Iris and Jett, Siren was more my size and probably wasn't much stronger. I threw her off of me and realized I may actually have an advantage, but then I remembered how incredibly quick she was. As soon as she was off of me she was up and charging me with a knife. She raised her knife and stabbed at me but I ducked under it. My shoulder in her stomach and her weight going forward, I lifted and threw her over my shoulder. I got her over and she landed awkwardly on her back, but the motion of her arm had got her knife lodged in my left thigh. I bit my bottom of my lip as I yanked it out. However, as soon as my wound was exposed, some algae rain fell on it, increasing the pain. I did my best to forget the pain and turned to Siren. I threw her knife back at her, but she rolled away from it. She rolled back over to try to grab the knife, but I had taken my axe out of its strap and swung it down at her arm as her fingers reached the handle of the knife. She quickly withdrew her hand to avoid losing it completely to my axe. She violently kicked my left thigh, sending waves of pain through my body and giving her time to reach around my axe and grab her knife. She was quick to get back on her feet and swung her knife at me, but I blocked it with my axe. She kicked me in the chin and sent me stumbling a bit down the hill. Trees continued to fall around us and I nearly backed into the path of a falling spruce.

I was getting used to the pain from the algae and hadn't really noticed it while fighting Siren, but I now noticed that both my arms were singed all over. Siren ran toward me but abruptly stopped as a golden sword whirled right in front of her face and stuck in the tree right next to her. She was probably two inches from being dead. She turned to confront a now charging Jett. Siren slashed at him but Jett ducked under it and lunged upward with his right arm, elbowing her in the face. The blow gave enough time for Jett to grab his sword out of tree. Jett had his back to me and I once again took the opportunity to try to bury my axe in his spine. But the cracking from a falling tree nearby caught both of our attentions. We both had to dive to avoid being crushed. Jett took one quick swing at me with his sword, but I avoided decapitation and ducked under it. Jett began to pull himself up but was completely blindsided by a kick to the side of he face from Siren. Jett went over the fallen tree and tumbled far down the hill. I didn't see how far because I was soon faced with a scary looking Siren. She seemed incredibly angry, and growled as she swung her knife at me. I backed away, the knife barely missing my chest. I felt my hand hit a rock and I chucked it at her as she prepared to swing again. The rock distracted her long enough for me to get a better grip on my axe and get back on my feet. I ran away from her but she chased after me. I should've known that running was useless, she was faster than me after all, but I ran regardless. I abruptly stopped and turned to run downhill as a tree crashed right in front of me. But just as I turned, Siren charged into me and sent both of us over the trunk. I lost my grip on my axe, and when I hit the ground I had no idea where it was. Siren brought her knife down but I moved my head to the right to dodge it. I leaned over and bit her hand as I hard as I could. She released her grip on the knife and growled in either pain or anger. I threw her off of me and took her knife out of the ground. I looked up and heard a crack, a tree right behind was about to fall. I got on my feet to see Siren charging me. I stepped to my right and struck her in the back of the head with the butt of my knife when she got to me. The combination of the downward incline and the impact sent her to the ground face first as the tree began to fall. She began to push herself up when the trunk of the tree fell on and crushed her head. The cracking sound from the impact matched the ones from the trees, and blood splattered everywhere, like when crushing a watermelon. Her body was completely limp, and blood pumped from where her neck met the tree. The cannon went off, but the sound was lost among the other chaos. I would've been much more disturbed by the scene had I not been frantically scanning the immediate area for Jett or watching out for any other falling trees. The pain from the raining algae had gotten worse, and I decided to go downhill, where more trees still stood. I found my axe lying on the ground nearby and made sure to grab it before running down the hill.

I could feel the ground begin to sink a little more and realized that the entire hill was beginning to collapse. I looked across the arena and realized that there were no longer hills in the distance. Those hills must have already sunk into the ground. I got to the bottom of the hill and was relieved to have more protection from the algae rain. I still had to be wary of falling trees though. I ran a little further and felt a splash at my feet. My boot protected me from the algae in the water, but I was surprised to be at the swamp already. Then I realized what was going to happen if no one won soon: the Gamemakers were going to turn the arena into an algae infected pool. At least there was only one more to go.

Speak of the devil.

Jett's heavy footsteps gave him away. If he'd been quieter, he'd have probably caught me off guard. But instead, when he charger I already had my axe at the ready. He violently swung his sword; I blocked it but the power behind the strike caused me to stagger back a bit. He swung again, with just as much power. I blocked it again, but the powerful strikes continued in rapid succession. Meanwhile, trees all around continued to fall, algae continued to rain, and the swamp continued to rise. I was stuck on the defensive while he was mercilessly swinging his sword at me. The falling of a nearby tree distracted Jett and gave me a bit of an opening. I quickly pulled a knife from my belt and threw it at Jett. It wasn't thrown well, but it didn't need to be. The knife forced Jett to delay his attack and dodge, giving me a chance to go on the offensive. I swung my axe and he blocked it with his sword. He seemed taken aback by my strength and I had even forced him to take a step back. But he was quicker with a sword than I was with my axe. He ducked under my second strike and suddenly began attacking again. I had to back up as he swans and stepped back in the swamp, which had risen a considerable amount. I blocked another strike when I used my foot to splash some water onto his leg. Both of our feet were protected by our boots, but the algae ate right through the material of his pants and onto his leg. Jett hissed in pain as I turned and ran. He wasn't far behind and I could hear him grunting as he ran. I was now sloshing through algae infected water and it wouldn't be too long until the water rose above my ankles and past my boots, which right now were the only things protecting me.

I heard a louder grunt come from Jett before feeling a light sting on my back. He had been close enough to scratch my back with his sword. I ran faster, trying to stay in shallow water as much as possible and dodging falling trees left and right. The falling trees became extra annoying as the water rose, splashing algae on me and making the burns even worse. I didn't want to imagine what my arms and shoulders looked like from all of the algae.

My feet suddenly fell out from under me and I tumbled down a rocky surface. I had fallen into my cave! Water began to surge into the cave as I quickly pulled myself to my feet. Jett had jumped in immediately after me, and I stepped to the side to avoid the sword he swung down. I swung my axe at his side but he ducked and kicked me in the stomach. Water was quickly filling the cave and we both groaned in pain when the water passed our ankles. The water filled my boots and caused an indescribable amount of pain in my feet. Jett swung his sword across his body and I leaned back to avoid the hit, but it cut me a little. I spotted my bucket of algae sitting on the cave floor. I figured that the water would've caused the algae to disperse, but it was worthy shot, so I tossed whatever remained in the bucket at Jett. A surprising amount of algae had remained in the bucket and it hit him in the chest and in the face. He screamed in pain and dropped his sword into the water. The water was now at our knees and it was a pain to move even an inch, but I sucked it up and stepped forward to swing my axe at him. I swing across my body and cut his chest pretty deeply. I swung again but he stepped forward and caught the handle, fighting through the immense pain he must've been feeling. I couldn't pull the axe out of his grip and he violently smashed his head against mine, dislodging the axe from my grip and sending me staggering back into the wall of the cave. He rushed forward and brought the axe down at me, but I rolled away. The axe stuck in the cave and it took him a few seconds to get it out. During this time, I reached down and cupped some water in my hands. When he turned to face me with the axe, I threw the water into the open wound on his chest. My hands hurt from holding the algae-water, but I was sure his pain was worse. He screamed and dropped the axe into the water from the pain and seemed momentarily incapacitated by the pain. I reached up and grabbed his head, and threw it into the cave wall. He tried to right himself and stop the collision, but his head still hit the wall hard. He was hunched over after the impact, so I brought my elbow down on the back of his neck. He gasped for breath and blindly swung his arm back at me. I caught one of his fingers and dunked his hand into the water, eliciting another groan of pain. The water was now at my thighs and my feet were in so much pain. I was getting worried about how badly my legs were burned and how far through my leg the algae had gotten. I grabbed his head and violently kneed him in the face. The impact actually really hurt my knee, which had been in the water for a while, but I pushed it aside. I had to finish this and win.

Jett struggled to move and I reached across his back and grabbed his side. I pulled him and he toppled into the water. He thrashes violently as the pain swept through him, but I was working hard to keep him completely under. I brought up my leg and pushed down on Jett, who was becoming very weak. The state of his injuries kept him from getting out from under my leg; I had him effectively pinned underwater. The water had risen further and I clenched my teeth from the overwhelming pain. Jett's body continued to struggle a bit, and I was really hoping he would die soon. The pain was starting to become to much for me to handle, and I screamed in agony. The water reached my hips and I had lost all feeling below my knees. I couldn't tell if Jett was still struggling, but I was praying that the algae would hurry up and kill him.

I leaned my head back, closed my eyes and whimpered a bit when a cannon sounded. I opened my eyes and looked around expectantly. Water was no longer pouring into the cave and I could hear a hovercraft outside of the cave. I looked at the mouth of the cave and a blinding light hit me...

"...Johanna Mason! Victor of the 69th Hunger Games!..."

**A/N: What'd you think? I thought it turned out pretty well. And Johanna won! But I'm sure that didn't shock anyone...**

**I'll post again as soon as I can. I'll have some good writing time tomorrow, but I won't have much time to write for the rest of the week. So the next update will probably come either on Monday or next weekend. I'll try my best for Monday.**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: I'm so sorry that this took so long, but it really took a long time to write. As a reward for being patient, I give you an incredibly long chapter! It's actually over 7,000 words. Yeah, pretty long.**

**Thanks to Theatergirl6, bailyflan, and amethystaquamarine34azure for reviewing! I love reading the reviews you guys leave!**

I was in a big white room, being operated on. I really don't remember what happened before that. The last thing I could recall was hearing my name announced as Victor. But now I was here. I vision was incredibly blurry and my eyes were only half open. A sharp pain ran through my legs and I let out a muffled groan. "She woke up! Quick, give her more anesthesia!" I heard one of the doctors say. I gazed up to see someone placing something over my mouth. I closed my eyes and fell back into unconsciousness.

When I woke up later, I was alone. My legs were really sore and it hurt a little when I stood up. I had been moved from an operating room to a small bedroom. There was a fresh change of clothes so I switched out of my hospital gown and into those. Unlike most of the stuff the Capitol put me in, I liked this outfit. It was just comfortable jeans, a light green shirt, and a dark green jacket to go over it. I didn't wear the jacket though. I realized my hair was still in a ponytail from the arena, so I undid it and let my hair fall down. I ran my fingers through it a couple of times to try to untangle it a bit. But it was still pretty messy so I gave up and resolved to take a shower later. Then it dawned on me, I was a Victor. I had won the Hunger Games. A sense of pride and accomplishment washed over me. I could go back to District Seven. I really wanted to go home. I'd be rich. I was as a little bit giddy as I left the room. I had just won the Hunger Games!

"There she is!" chimed Puff perkily as I entered the hallway. She rushes up and hugged me, and although I normally would've thrown up or knees her in the stomach, I realized that I was a little happy to see her. Back in District Seven she represented the Capitol, one of the main reasons I hated her. But now, in this moment, she reminded me of home. After a few seconds she released me, "Oh, we just knew you could do it! I'll admit, I had serious doubts in the beginning, but you really pulled it out in the end! You put on a great show too. Fooled just about everybody in the Capitol with that act of yours, myself included! Have you had anything to eat recently? You must be famished! Come, we'll get you some of the Capitol's finest food. Only the best for a Victor!" Puff rushed away giving orders to random people about having some food prepared for me. Then I noticed Brittany sitting in one of the chairs. Puff's exuberance must've been overshadowing her presence. Brittany stood up, "Congratulations." "Thanks," I replied. "The doctors said that you'll make a full recovery, but you're legs might be a little sore for the next couple of hours." I recalled my injuries from the arena and scanned my body. The cut on my chest was gone and so were the burn marks on my arms. I rolled up one of my pant legs and looked at my ankle. It was all there, but some marks were visible. "The algae from the water burned through a lot of your legs. The doctors were able to regenerate the parts of you body that the algae ate through, however." explained Brittany, "the marks on your ankle are actually from the medicine they used." I nodded in understanding. "Where's Flip?" I asked. "He..." Brittany began, searching for the right words, "...won't be joining us. He's a bit angry at you." "Why the hell is he angry at me?" I asked incredulously, "Is he mad that outlasted his pet Wyatt?" "Pretty much," replied Brittany, "He thinks you made a mockery of the system, or something. It's weird. I haven't tried to figure out what he meant. He's being stupid." "At least I won't have to deal with him again". I scoffed. "If only you were that lucky," said Brittany, "You'll have to work as a mentor with him next year." My head fell back as I cursed silently under my breath. I did not want to mentor next year, let alone mentor with Flip.

"Unfortunately, you have a pretty busy day." began Brittany as I audibly groaned, "In a few hours, you'll be presented to the public for the first time in a big parade through the Capitol, followed immediately by an interview with Caesar. Then you'll go to a gala hosted by President Snow where he'll crown you as a Victor and have dinner. Also, during the gala, there will be a public viewing of your best highlights from the games. After you get through all of that, you'll board a train and get to go home. Got that?" I nodded, "I think I can handle it."

After the next two hours, I was starting to doubt if I could handle it without tearing someone's head off. The "makeover" the stylists were giving me was worse than when I first arrived. Apparently, I was a mess from the arena and that they also needed to make me look "extra special" since I was a Victor. Then the main stylist guy - I had already forgotten his name, but I didn't really care - put me in the shiniest gold dress he could find and put my hair up into this weird bun, except it wasn't quite a bun. Didn't really matter what it was, I hated it. I tried my best to play nice with my designer, but I lost it when he put me in six inch heels with heels that were so narrow they eventually came to a point. Apparently, it was the high point of fashion. But I realized that now that I had won, now that I was a Victor, I didn't have to put up with this shit anymore. I didn't have to put up an act, I didn't have to pretend I liked what my stylist was doing (although the dress was sort of nice). So, as soon as the stylist was finished accessorizing me, I took my shoes off and handed them back to him. "What are you doing?" he had asked, mystified. "Handing these shoes back to you," I explained in a mocking tone. "No. You're wearing those shoes." he replied commandingly. "I pushed the shoes out more and gestures for him to take them. "Listen..." he began, but I cut him off. "No. You listen. I'm a Victor. I think I can decide what I want to wear." As I said this, I began individually plucking the clips out of my hair and letting it fall down. He seemed to die a little each time a clip hit the ground. "Get it through your head," I said, impatiently dropping the shoes on the ground, "I'm not wearing them."

I turned and walked away proudly. Not only was his jaw on the floor, but I didn't have to wear those stupid shoes anymore. I walked a past a dresser with scissors on it and couldn't pass up the opportunity to make my outfit even better. My dress fell to around my ankles and had an obnoxious train, so I took the scissors and cut off a good four inches from the dress. The train and other material fell to the ground and I might've heard the stylist squeal in agony. I smiled as I put the scissors down and kept walking. I spotted myself in a mirror and wondered what the big deal was, I looked much better this way. I might even just go out on the parade float barefoot.

It was nice knowing I didn't have to be all nice and fake anymore. I could just be myself. When random Capitol workers said "hi" to me, I just ignored them. When Puff was going above and beyond giving me instructions for the parade, I told her to shut up and get on with it. Maybe I could have been nicer. Maybe I could've tried to go along with the charade the Capitol was having for me. But I had just won the fucking Hunger Games. And I was in a pretty irritable mood to boot. Plus, I still didn't really like people, so I didn't think the people were going to take to me very well.

Puff had ushered me outside and to an enormous float. It was about twenty feet high and I had to climb a ladder to the top of it. There was a throne at the top that Puff instructed me to sit on, and she informed me that her, Brittany, and Flip would all be sitting in a circle of seats below the throne. Nothing in the parade was to be higher than the throne. I had to wait up on the top of the float for twenty minutes while everybody else got set up for the parade. Flip and Brittany arrived and Brittany gave me a gentle smile. Flip didn't even look at me. Asshole. "At least try to look like you're enjoying yourself." scolded Puff, regarding my posture. I was leaning forward in my seat and had my head resting in my hand. I must've looked bored out of my mind (I was). But when the parade finally started, I tried my best to look like I actually cared.

Another person in my position might've described the parade as amazing. Spectacular. Even outstanding. We went through almost the entire city, as seemingly everyone from the Capitol gathered to adore and fawn over me. The Capitol itself was luxurious too. Every turn brought something fascinating, that I can't even begin to compare to District Seven. But something felt wrong. I might've enjoyed, but I didn't feel good about the situation. Like I should stop waving and smiling and be screaming and swearing instead. But I couldn't completely identify the emotion I was feeling. It wasn't just anger or sadness. It was a bit more complex than that. But I decided to push it back for now and just get through the parade.

The parade immediately segued into an interview with Caesar. Once I stepped off of the float, I was escorted back into the main building and backstage to wait for my cue. "Just get through this." I told myself, still unsure why I was so uneasy about everything. "Don't trip." Puff had warned me.

"And here she is. The Victor of the 69th Hunger Games, ladies and gentlemen I give you, Johanna Mason!"

That was my cue. Caesar stood and applauded as I made my way on stage. "I like your fashion choice." he said to me as I was close to him, gesturing downward. I wasn't sure what he meant, but then I realized that I had actually come on stage without shoes. My stylist was probably pulling his hair out, and that visual made me smile. I sat down in my chair and crossed my legs at the knee.

"Before we begin the interview," Caesar said, "I need to make an announcement. This, unfortunately, will be Ivy Herald's last year as Head Gamemaker." Ivy stepped out onstage and their were sad gasps from the audience. "This will also be the last year you hear my voice making announcements in the arena," Caesar continued over the crowd reaction, "Both of those positions will be filled by Mr. Alan Cromwell!" Caesar gestured with his arm to his right to reveal a man who must've been Alan Cromwell. The crowd applauded for awhile, and when the noise died down Caesar turned to me.

"So, Johanna," Caesar began, "I don't think anybody anticipated what you pulled. I think I speak for everybody when I say that you duped us. You completely duped us. I mean, you had the lowest evaluation score, you cried relentlessly, and you seemed pretty pathetic to me. Why'd you do it? Was it necessary to have that facade going?" I leaned back a bit, thinking over my response in my head. "Well of course it was necessary," I said, "My strategy was to get every single person to overlook me. No one came searching for me, no one hunted for me. When the Careers were chasing me through the woods along with another tribute, my strategy saved my life. They chased her instead of me. My strategy allowed me to breeze right into the top ten. And once I got there, I got to start showing what I was really capable of."

"Let's talk about your actual capabilities then," replied Caesar, "As you know, no one suspected what you were capable of. And I must say, waking up Cinder and instigating a fight between the two alliances was a stroke of genius. But that was only the beginning of what we were going to see. You betrayed your one ally, Mara, in a rather cold-hearted way. Let's talk about that for a minute. What were you thinking the morning you decided to kill your best friend in the arena?" I didn't like this question. I was tempted to just say "pass" but Caesar would've just pressed the issue. So I answered honestly, "Well, she had to die. At some point. I mean, I-There were so many scenarios going through my head, I just, thought it was the best decision at the time." "Do you think it was the best decision looking back on it now?" God damn it Caesar, couldn't you just change the damn topic. "Uhhh..." I said thinking, "Yes. Yes I do."

"But even after you betrayed Mara, I still don't think that anyone watching though you had any shot of winning. There were still three Careers left, plus the other alliance of three. But then, you single-handedly took out that second alliance in under fifteen seconds! How exactly did that happen, what was going through your head? Why were you looking for a cave in the first place?" This question was a lot easier. "Actually, I decided that a cave would be a good place to take refuge. And I knew that in the last few years, there'd always been at least one cave, so I figured the Gamemakers might've thrown one in this year too. Just a hunch. But then I stumbled into it and had the run in with Elodie, Crimson, and Cinder. I was nervous. But I had the knives and I had the axe, so I knew I was prepared. Plus, I figured I'd have the element of surprise on my side. But when I actually stepped out, adrenaline just sort of took over. And then Cinder decided not to die, so I decided to punish her...painfully."

I made sure to throw in that last part. I didn't want Caesar to come back to it, so I addressed it myself. I still felt awful about what I'd done, but it fit my new badass persona the Capitol had for me, and I was sure the audience would like it. Fortunately, I was right and Caesar didn't go back to the topic of Cinder.

"Next question, and this question came from a viewer, where'd you get so good with the axes and knives? We know you were faking your bad evaluation score, but to be able to face off against Careers in head-to-head combat, and take down all three that you faced? Where'd you get so good at fighting?" Before I could open my mouth to answer, three dings rang out. Caesar looked up, disappointed. "Well, I'm sorry folks, but unfortunately, that sound means we're out of time." The audience booed loudly but Caesar shushed them. "Hey, you can all see her later if you attend the President's gala tonight. But we wouldn't want to keep Johanna hear any longer than she has to, she's a very busy woman," he said before turning to me, "Thank you so much, and we'll see you next year when you come back next year to mentor." I shook his hand and the audience gave me a standing ovation as I walked offstage. Ugh, I didn't want to mentor, why did Caesar have to remind me.

As soon as I stepped offstage, Puff ambushed me. "Excellent interview. Absolutely excellent. Much better than your last interview," she said to me, winking. "Now, you'll get an hour to eat something of you'd like. But don't eat too much, because the President's Gala is only a few hours away. You'll have a chance to shower and you'll need to change your outfit. Please listen to your stylist this time." She looked down at my feet and cut dress with a look of disgust and contempt. She shoved me into a small dining room before rushing out. She seemed incredibly stressed for some reason; she must be incredibly busy right now. The servants in the room looked at me expectantly and I saw the vast array of food on the table. I hadn't eaten since I woke up, but I didn't feel like eating. "No thanks," I told them politely before excusing myself.

I walked (okay, maybe I ran) through the building searching for an empty room. I caught several odd glances and a few people asked me where I was going, but I just ignored them. After going through several hallways, I found a room with nothing in it but a cushioned bench. That would do. I locked the door behind me as I entered the room. I needed to relax. I needed to think. Something was wrong with this. I laid myself out on the bench as if it were a bed and was going to start thinking some things over, but then I fell asleep.

"Wake up! Wake up! I said wake up!" someone shouted at me. I felt hands on my shoulders and the feeling of someone shaking me when I opened my eyes and saw Puff's angry expression. "Johanna, what do you think you're doing? No one's been able to find you! You didn't shower! You didn't eat! You barely have time left to change clothes, because you're not wearing the same outfit twice! Drek has laid out some lovely selections and you have the choice of which outfit you want, but you need to hurry! Be ready in fifteen minutes!" Puff had dragged me into another room where my stylist (I had already forgotten his name again) had laid out five rather Capitol-like outfits. Hadn't he realized that I hated the Capitol clothes? I looked at what I had to work with. I found the flattest shoes I could find (three inch heels) and put them on. They were black and uncomfortably tight, but I dealt with it. Two of the outfits were dresses, and I immediately ruled those. There were two pairs of pants, and I had to choose between the lesser of two evils, purple or red. Since the purple was a bit darker, I chose that pair. I randomly found a white shirt that was probably meant to go under several layers of other stuff, but it was the most ordinary piece of clothing there. So I just put that on and left it at that. Puff would probably call my choice of clothing "skimpy" or something, but she wasn't going to be able to do anything about it. Besides, the shirt was comfy. I completely ignored the accessories and the make up that had been put out for me.

When I stepped out of the room, Puff seemed shocked. Brittany had appeared next to Puff and was struggling not to laugh at her expression. Puff opened her mouth to say something, but she instead rolled her eyes and walked away muttering, "We don't have time for this." Brittany nodded as if to say hello and escorted me in the same direction Puff skulked off in. "The President's Gala was to start promptly at 6:00. It's 6:04." Brittany told me, "Don't worry about it though. It looks good to be a few minutes late." We walked a ways before Brittany spoke again, "Your choice of clothing probably wasn't the smartest. You're supposed to look grand and beautiful when President Snow crowns you. And aside from the heels, it looks like you might've just rolled out of bed. People might think you're being disrespectful." The only thing I said in response was, "Funny, the shoes are the one part of my outfit I wish I could get rid of."

We walked down a long hallway toward two enormous doors. When we reached the end of the hallway, two servants pushed the doors opened and revealed the massive spectacle inside. The room was enormous and elaborately decorated. There must've been a thousand people in attendance, each one dressed in some spectacularly weird way. A TV took up the entire wall farthest from me, and a large staircase led to a throne on the wall to my right. When I stepped into the room, a horn sounded and the party came to a complete stop. Brittany had disappeared somewhere in the crowd and everybody stared me. A few seemed taken aback by my clothing at first, but most stared at me in fascination, as if I were the most important thing they had ever seen. "Ladies and gentlemen!" a mysterious voice from somewhere boomed, "Please welcome, the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games, the guest of honor at this year's President Gala, Johanna Mason!" And then the crowd erupted into applause, with some shouting and whooping loudly in celebration. A number of people even threw their hats into the air. The party continued but people continued to applaud or cheer when they say me. I walked toward the center of the room where I found the food. There was a triangular table set up in the middle of the room with three giant turkeys placed in the center. An array of fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and desserts lay placed around the turkeys, leaving very little of the tabletop visible. Nope, still not hungry.

An array of random people would occasionally approach me and congratulate, ask me incredibly random questions, and talk about the party. I tried to entertain these people at first, but after the first three groups I was already sick of them. My responses to them became cold and heartless and I tried to avoid these people as much as possible. It even escalated to the point where I simply ignored them and pretended they weren't right behind me trying to get my attention. I skulked around for about thirty minutes trying to avoid interaction as much as possible.

"And now," boomed the mysterious voice, "as we prepare to formally crown the Victor of the 69th Hunger Games, we celebrate the year's events by reliving them." The TV came to life and Brittany appeared out of nowhere to usher me towards the giant staircase. I ascended the steps and sat on my throne, and I noticed there was a similar structure on the opposite side of the room where President Snow sat.

The highlight reel began at the countdown, completely skipping over the week of events before the games began. I didn't really want to watch all of this, I'd already lived it. At the very least, I might be able to answer a few questions I had. The first question I had was answered almost right away with the sound of an explosion. The boy from District Six (Ash) had intentionally stepped off of his platform. He had just closed his eyes and taken a step forward. The thought sort of disturbed me, that he was so distraught and had lost all hope that suicide seemed like the best option. For him, maybe it was the best option. Better go out quick then possibly die from a slow and painful death, I guess. Still, it bothered me. They also showed how the second alliance had gotten so many weapons without beating the Careers for control of the cornucopia. Turns out that Elodie had been extremely sneaky and fast. The others would draw the Careers away from their weapons and Elodie would steal a few items. Then they'd take their bounty back to their camouflaged cave (Crimson had made the tarp).

They showed some of Caesar and Claudius' coverage of the Games, and I noticed that I got little to no screen time at the beginning. Caesar was talking about the odds and how sponsors were going to be very important over a scene of the Careers by a campfire. The Careers were talking about their lives, their districts, their families. And then I realized what the horrible feeling was that I'd been feeling all day. It was the same feeling that had bothered me after I'd killed Cinder in the cave. Family was one of the things I never really had, and I had been a part in tearing more families apart. Siren had talked about her two younger sisters, her mother who owned a flower shop, her friends back home. And I had taken Siren away from them. Visions of Siren's head being crushed ran through my head as I thought of her family and friends who had lost someone they cared about. The Capitol was evil. The Hunger Games were evil. And that's why I hated the idea of celebrating my victory, because we were really glorifying an event that ruined lives. It was inhumane, and everyone in the Capitol ate it up.

The rest of the viewing was just as bad, as my emotions fluctuated between anger and hate. I forced myself to zone out during scenes I didn't want to relive (Mara's death, scenes characterizing the Careers). I thought of District Seven, the pines, my tree fort; it made the time go by quicker. I noticed that Caesar and Claudius's positive commentary regarding me grew exponentially, and by the time I had secured my cave they were thinking I could win. "She's a sneaky one, that Johanna," Claudius had quipped, "You never quite know what she's going to do."

I made sure to turn away when they showed me stumbling into the cave for the first time, not wanting to see what was about to happen. I didn't have to see what was happening, but it was impossible to block out the sounds, and Caesar was giving moment-by-moment analysis. I heard the crowd cheer and I gaped in horror when I realized what they were cheering at. According to Caesar, I had just poured algae into Cinder's wound, and the crowd loved it. As if I needed more proof that the Capitol was evil. From that point on, the crowd cheered whenever I killed someone. When I stabbed Iris, they cheered. When Siren got squashed, not only did they cheer, some even laughed. And people were shouting at my image on the TV screen as I fought Jett, as if their actions were helping me win. And then, finally, it was over. I never wanted to watch that again.

"The crowning ceremony will commence in thirty minutes." chimed the mysterious voice again.

Taking cue from President Snow, I descended from my throne and rejoined the mass of people on the ground. "Johanna! Perfect," came the voice of Puff. I turned and saw her appear from the crowd with two men in red suits. "These men are named Xerxes and Gondor. They were two of your sponsors who pitched in money to send you items when you were in the arena," she continued, "I'll just leave you three here to chat." Puff turned and walked away, leaving with two random men who I knew nothing

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Xerxes, extending his hand. I shook it and Gondor offered his hand too, which I shook as well. "You're probably curious as to what we'd like to discuss," said Gondor. I nodded my head and wished that they weren't looking so I could roll my eyes. No, I don't want to know what you want to discuss. You could leave right now and my life would be no worse than if you stayed, it'd probably be better. "You see," said Xerxes, clearly not hearing my thoughts, "We, in the Capitol, like helping each other out. And when someone does something nice for you, it's only customary to return the favor later. Well, as your friend told you, we were two of your sponsors. We contributed a significant amount of money to get you that pillow you slept on in the cave. Now, since we did something for you, we feel it's only fair that you help us out a bit now." I didn't like where this was going. Xerxes continued, "You see, me and my friend here own a large coat business, which distributes throughout the Capitol. But recently, we've had a bit of competition and our sales have been falling quite a bit. In fact, we might go under if things don't start to turn around. Here's where you come in. We'd like you to do a bit of advertising for our business; it'd really help us a lot. You'd have to stay here for a few extra days, but that wouldn't be much of a problem." Oh yes, it would be. I wasn't staying in the Capitol any longer than I had to. "I'm sorry," I began, "but I really don't want to." I probably could've been more polite about that, but I wasn't exactly in the best mood. Xerxes and Gondor seemed taken aback. "Well let us know if you change your mind," said Xerxes before excusing himself, Gondor following close behind.

I skulked around the room a little more, continuing to avoid interaction as much as possible, when Brittany came up to me in a panic. "Did you say 'no' to the coat advertising?" she practically screamed at me. "Yeah. There's no fucking way I'm staying here any long than I have to." I said rather coldly. I turned away from her but she grabbed my shoulder and whirled me back around. "You don't seem to understand this, or maybe you're just not aware of the political situation, but those men are very good friends with President Snow and even have some dirt on him. If their business goes under, it could have negative repercussions on Snow." Brittany replied. Her argument still hadn't changed my opinion, "So what! I don't care what happens to President Snow."

"You don't get it do you?" said Brittany angrily, "If something bad happens to President Snow, something bad happens to whoever caused it. And in this case, blame could easily get pinned on you if you don't help with the damn advertising!" Brittany was really freaking out about this right now, "And you don't have a choice. I've already scheduled for you to stay an extra two days. You can't leave." She turned and left.

This sucked. I wanted to go home. And it's not like I could just walk home by myself, I needed the Capitol to let me go home. And right now, that wasn't happening. I went up to one of the servants and asked where the restroom was. She pointed towards them, not speaking. When I found them, I went in, realizing I was the only one inside. There was a small window at the top of the far wall and I stood on my toes to look through it. Outside was a small garden; a few bushes lay immediately in front of the window. I climbed onto one of the sinks and reached over to open the window. Once it was open, I stuck my arms through and began to pull the rest of my body through. It was a tight fit, but after a bit of squirming I had gotten my torso through. Once I got my hips through, my legs went through easily and I fell forward into the bushes.

I righted myself and just sat against the wall. I didn't want to go back in there. I didn't want to do any advertising. I didn't want to stay in the Capitol. I didn't want to go back to the party. But then again, I didn't want any of this, did I? I didn't want to not have a family. I didn't want to get reaped. I didn't want to fight for my life, or kill other people. I didn't want to go through all of this post-victory shit. Yet, I did. And I'd probably have to go through a bunch of other stuff I didn't want to go through.

"It could be different, you know," said someone nearby. I looked up to see a young woman looking down at me from the bathroom window. She pulled herself through but did so in a way that allowed her to land on her feet. "Who are you?" I asked, glaring at her. She chuckled a bit and I scanned her over. She didn't exactly look like someone from the Capitol. Her clothes were...ordinary. For the most part, her shirt was bright orange and her pants were yellow. She had light brown skin and wavy black hair. "I'm your friend," she said smiling. What? "You're most certainly not the first person this has happened to," she said, "To be unhappy with the situation they're in even after they win the Hunger Games. And it doesn't go away." I still didn't know her name, let alone what she wanted, but I was intrigued by her statement so I let her continue. "They don't leave you alone. It starts as one favor now, but sooner or later you end up a slave. They can ask anything they want of you - and trust me, they'll want a lot - and you'll have to do it."

"Who are you?" I tried again. "My name is Vanessa Redding," she said. Definitely not a Capitol name. "And now I have a question for you, too. What do you think of the Capitol?" I didn't expect that. I was surprised at the question, and even though it was probably smarter to lie and say I loved the Capitol, I felt like I could trust her. "I hate the Capitol," I muttered. She seemed pleased with my response, smiling. "Then here," she said handing me a folded up piece of paper, "This will tell you how to get back to District Seven."

She got up to leave but I stopped her, "What did you mean when you said that they don't leave you alone?" She turned back around to face me, "You know Finnick Odair, right?" "Of course I do," I said, "Just about every girl in my district wanted to get in bed with him." She frowned slightly, "Well every important female political figure in the Capitol already has. And he's still on the Capitol leash. Don't end up like him. We'll keep in touch."

Then she disappeared into the garden. I sat there for a few minutes collecting my thoughts. What did she mean by 'we'll keep in touch'? Was she telling the truth? I figured she was, who would lie about something like that? What would be the gain? And her details fit with everything I'd learned so far either through observance or from Brittany. And what do I do with these instructions? I read them over and everything seemed like it would work. According to Vanessa, Xerxes carried the dirt on President Snow with him in his jacket, so I'd just have to steal the evidence from him and get rid of the blackmail. Then I'd be free to go. The tricky part was getting him to take off his jacket, but Vanessa's instructions had that on there too. I had to use the outdoor control system to turn up the temperature in the party so everyone has no choice but to hang up their jackets. I looked at the map Vanessa had provided and saw that the controls were...a few feet to my left. I turned and saw a set of dials, meters and switches on the wall. These weren't the normal controls; these were the manual ones that they used if one of the computer controls malfunctioned. But in this case, the manual controls would cause the malfunction. I read the instructions on how to work the switches and turned the heat as high as it would go. Then, I busted the pipe controlling the air temperature so that the computers inside wouldn't be able to fix it. Of course, I didn't know if my actions were really doing anything or not, I was just blindly following the instructions.

I walked back to the window to reenter the party and could feel the heat radiating from the restroom. So it did work. I examined my clothes quickly and felt lucky to see that I hadn't gotten my white shirt dirty. Then I jumped up and clung to the sill of the window. I was able to lift myself up and pull myself through the window without anybody noticing. People in the Capitol must not have to use the restroom very often.

I went back into the large room where the party was and could see lots of people going in and out of the coat room. When I saw Xerxes walked into the room, I immediately entered after him. The coat room consisted of two automated racks that acted like elevators. When one row of hangars was filled, it was lifted up and a new row of hangars was exposed. Xerxes put his coat on the left rack as I slinked my way through the crowd of people. Fortunately, everybody seemed to be too preoccupied by the intense heat to look down and notice me sneaking by them. I was almost at Xerxes' coat when the last hangar on his row was filled and the row began to lift up. Acting quickly, I reached out and grabbed onto the bar supporting the hangars as it pulled them and me upward. My motion was so swift and the row moved away so fast that it would've been hard for someone to see me get pulled away with the coats.

I hung on as I flew through darkness, hoping that the bar would stop moving soon. A light shone down from above and I realized that the ride was almost over. The row of coats stopped when it went into a large storage room with all of the other coats. It stopped and moved to the right, so that it was next to the other coats. I let go and went to Xerxes' coat and began searching through his pockets. All of them were empty, but then I found a pocket on the inside. In it, I found a hidden pocket and pulled a small disc out of it. Bingo! I took it and tried to figure out how to get out. The room I was in was now filled with coats and the bars were now going to another room above the one I was in. While scanning for an exit, a familiar flash of purple caught my eye. President Snow's jacket! Funny how some things just work out like that. I went to his coat and found a pocket on the inside that I could put the disc into. Now I just had to figure out how to get out of here.

Thinking, I realized that there had to be some kind of a staircase in case there was some sort of emergency. I scanned the walls and eventually found a door. I opened it, but all that was inside were a bunch of switches. I closed it and kept looking. When I got to the edge of the room, I found another door. This time, it had what I was looking for. I hurried down the stairs as fast as I could, but it still took me a few minutes to reach the bottom, the bar had gone up pretty far. When I reached the bottom, I opened the door slowly, hoping that no one saw me. Peeking out, I saw that I was in a short hallway that connected to the coat room. I quietly closed the door behind me and crept to the edge of the hallway. I peeked around the corner and saw that the crowd in the room was smaller. When I thought no one was looking my way, I slipped back into the crowd and went out into the large room.

Then Puff found me, "Where have you been? The crowning ceremony is going to start any second now! Get up to your throne!" she shoved me towards my staircase and I quickly ascended, taking my place on the throne. Almost immediately after I sat down, the Capitol anthem began to play. I looked across the room and saw President Snow sitting in his chair holding a crown. The people in the room parted as soon as they heard the anthem, leaving an aisle in between my throne and President Snow's. As the anthem continued to play, President Snow descended his steps and slowly walked across the room towards me. He began to ascend my steps and I noticed a microphone stand appear near my throne. When President Snow reached me, I stood, and the crowd seemed to collectively hold their breaths as he reached over and placed the crown on my head. "Congratulations, my dear," he spoke quietly to me. For some reason, at these words anger boiled inside me. The way he said those words, the way he looked as he said them, what those words meant, what he was congratulating me for, what he represented - I hated all of it. He turned to face the crowd and tool the microphone from its stand. He grabbed my hand and pulled me forward so I was right next to him. "Johanna Mason! Victor!" he shouted, lifting my hand into air. The crowd erupted into thunderous applause and I nearly puked. They shouldn't be happy about this. They shouldn't be celebrating the death of 23 of other people. They shouldn't be celebrating me. I looked down and saw Puff, Brittany, and Flip standing together. Puff was cheering hysterically, but Brittany and Flip were only clapping slowly. Maybe they understood too.

After a few minutes of applause, President Snow released my hand and the crowd began to quiet down and disperse. "It was a pleasure meeting you," said President Snow evilly to me, "And I look forward to working around with you in the future." The nausea came back as he spoke to me. If only I could just push him down the stairs...

The party couldn't end soon enough. Wants Brittany told me I could leave whenever I was ready, I bolted for the door. Brittany had followed and led me back to my room. I was hoping Vanessa's plan would work and I'd get to go home tomorrow, but my hopes were dashed when Brittany reminded me about my advertising commitment. I went to bed disappointed, but Puff came bursting in later, informing me of the arrest of Xerxes and Gondor. Apparently, they'd been arrested for crimes against the President (the dirt on the disc must've been pretty bad) and because of the circumstances, I'd leave for District Seven tomorrow morning. Instead of going to bed disappointed, I ended up falling asleep with a smile on my face.

**A/N:** **I'll try as hard as I can to get the last chapter up as soon as possible. I'm a lot less busy now so it shouldn't be too long. And I promise the last chapter will be shorter. Thanks for reading! Reviews appreciated!**


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: This is the last chapter...:(. I have no idea what I'm going to do in my free time now. Maybe I'll start another story...

Looking back on it, I don't think the last chapter was my best, so I'm going to try to make this one as good as possible. I've still got a few twists up my sleeve too. ;D I don't think anyone will have seen one of them coming (it's a pretty good one, I'm proud of myself; not to toot my own horn too much). Sorry about errors, I don't edit my stories before I post (I really should though...). I'll try to wrap everything up the best I can, but Johanna's character really isn't resolved even in Mockingjay so I can't completely give her a corny fairy tale ending (even if I'd like to).

I need to extend an enormous thank you to amethystaquamarine34azure, Theatergirl6, bailyflan (I'll try to clear up the events in the last chapter a bit in the beginning of this chapter for ya), and iskanadaria for continuing to review and support my story. I also want to thank anyone who's reviewed this, added it to their Favorite Stories, put it on their Story Alerts, or even taken the time to read this. I've really enjoyed all the great feedback and love that my story actually has people reading it. And now for the last chapter...

Puff wouldn't shut up on the train ride back to District Seven. Xerxes and Gondor had been two really good friends of hers and she couldn't believe they'd committed crimes against the Capitol. She kept blabbing on and on about what had happened that night, how President Snow had found a strange disc in his pocket, viewed it, and immediately had the two arrested. It was hard to not snicker as she carried on, knowing that I was the one who had put the disc in President Snow's jacket and gotten Xerxes and Gondor arrested just to avoid spending an extra few days in the Capitol. "I just don't how President Snow got evidence to incriminate them," she continued. Why was she even coming back to District Seven anyway? Brittany and Flip both had to stay at the Capitol, so why didn't Puff? "What are you even going to be doing in District Seven?" I spoke abruptly, cutting her off in the middle of one of her elongated rambles. She tilted her head and smiled at me quirkily. "Business," she spoke softly. I turned away, expecting her to launch back into rambling. I could just go to my room..."What do you think of this mess?" she said. Wait, was she talking to me? I turned back to see her looking at me intently. I debated whether or not to tell her how I really felt and I decided that since I wasn't in the Capitol anymore, I could be as brutally honest as I wanted. "I didn't care for either of them," I started, "And frankly I don't care that they got arrested. If anything, I'm happy they got arrested because it means that I don't have to spend an extra few days in that wretched hellhole. Because to be honest, I hate the Capitol. I hate what it stands for, and I hate what it does to people. And for the longest time, I've hated you; because you're from the Capitol and act as if life is just dandy! Clearly you haven't seen the way most of us live out in the districts. Or maybe you have, and maybe you just don't care! Do you realize what it's like? I don't have a family because of the Capitol! Twenty-three kids just died because of the Capitol! I hate them! I want them to have to experience everything that the districts have had to endure for the past 69 years! Do they know what it's like to clench your teeth and hope that neither you nor anyone close to you gets reaped? No! They don't! They don't understand and neither do you! I hate you! I hate them! I hate all of you!" Where on earth did that come from? Without realizing it, I had stood up. I had, mostly unprovoked, slandered the Capitol. I had told Puff I hated her. And it felt...good. Like I had finally unleashed a lifetime of frustration and grief. This was how I felt. And at the moment, I didn't care who heard. It wasn't the smart thing to do, but it had come from nowhere, and I just let it out. And Puff just sat there, looking up at me and...smiling? Wait, what? She stared at me with the goofiest grin I had ever seen her wear (and I had seen some pretty goofy ones) before she got up and hurried back to her room.

I sat down in my chair, my heart still racing from adrenaline. What just happened? She had simply asked me what I had thought of Xerxes and Gondor's arrest. And then I'd exploded. I had just started saying how I actually felt and I couldn't seem to stop myself. But that wasn't even the weirdest part. I had already acknowledged my feelings regarding the Capitol (never like that of course), but Puff's reaction had been one of almost pure delight. I was so confused. Her room was right next to mine, so I took a glass and crept to her door. Placing the mouth of the glass against the door, I put my ear on the bottom to see if I could hear anything. Puff seemed to like talking to herself, so if I was lucky I could figure out why she was acting so weirdly. "...Everything and more...Is great!...No...We'll see...Talk more...District Seven." were the only words I could hear, but there was another voice coming from the room, a familiar one. I concentrated, trying to figure out who the voice belonged to, when I heard Puff get up and walk to the door. Frantically, I took my cup and ran to the nearest shelf of drinks, pretending to be preparing something. I grabbed the first lot within my reach and poured it into my glass as Puff stepped out of her room. She saw me and looked at me quizzically, "Dear, what are you doing?" I looked down at what I was doing and saw that I had filled my glass to the brim with hot water. "I was just..." I stuttered, "Pouring some hot water. It's like coffee without the caffeine; wakes you up." I smiled, hoping desperately that she would just accept the lie and move on. "Alright," she responded slowly, "But you really should use the metal cups for hot beverages. I'm going to check and see how far away we are." I sighed in relief, she bought it. She had turned and disappeared down the hall so I went to the nearest sink and dumped the water out. "Only another hour or so!" I heard Puff shout from off in the distance. I looked outside and saw that we were passing District Six. Almost home.

The "welcome home" ceremony was a pain. I had to stand on the platform in front of the train and wave and smile at everyone from my district. Don't get me wrong, it was great to be home, I just wanted all the celebrations to stop. As soon as I possibly could, I escaped to my tree fort. I didn't even go to my new Victor mansion, I just went to my tree fort. The mansion could wait. It felt good to have things feel normal again, sort of. Even if things weren't completely normal now, it was close enough. And it's not like my situation was anywhere near normal to begin with. I sat in the spot where I had sat for the last several years and without realizing it, fell asleep.

I woke up a few hours later, peacefully. It was probably the best sleep I had gotten in the past month, it may have been the best sleep I'd ever had. It left me feeling refreshed, almost happy. But my mood changed when I saw what was in the tree across from me. The same knife I hadn't been able to get before the reaping. My favorite knife. I climbed down from my tree and made another effort at getting the knife. I had gotten to the same place where I had gotten before, the knife just out of reach, but still couldn't get any higher. Damn. I needed the knife. I could try to cut the tree down, but it was technically illegal to cut down trees outside the lumber zone and cutting the tree down myself could take weeks. I thought for a few seconds and decided to do something daring. I jumped from my spot and reached for my knife, clinging on to it with one hand. I was dangling high above the ground, with nothing holding me up other than the knife. I probably should've thought this one through more.

A large buzzing sound interrupted my thinking and drew my attention. It sounded like one of the Capitol ships that would fly in once a month to collect lumber, but this sound was different. Suddenly, a dark gray mass appeared below me and I felt myself getting pulled downward. A rope had shot out and caught me feet and there was no way I was going to be able to fight it. I at least made sure to take my knife with me when the ship pulled me down.

I landed on something soft, and my surroundings were completely dark. My immediate reaction was that I'd been kidnapped by the Capitol. Great. The last thing I wanted to do was go back to the Capitol. But why did they have to do it like this? The hole I had entered through had closed and I could tell the ship was moving...fast. I untied the rope binding my legs and held my knife up to protect myself. The soft surface was strange to walk on, but after a few moments I got used to it and began to meander aimlessly. It only took me about twenty paces, but I reached the wall of the room I was in. I still couldn't see anything. I was about to start searching for a door when a light came from the opposite end of the room. The room I was in wasn't that large, and I could see the faces of the people who opened the door. I just stood there, dumbly.

"Why don't you put the knife down, Johanna," said a familiar voice. I realized I had my knife up and ready and probably looked like I was ready to kill. Cautiously, I lowered my knife, not wanting to let my guard down too much. The two people in front of me stepped aside revealing the person who had just spoken, Vanessa Redding. Why was she on a Capitol ship? She had been the one who had given me the means of escaping, what was she doing here? "You may be a bit confused right now. But don't worry, I'll explain what's happening a little later," she assured me.

She led me down a well lit hallway with lots of windows and I couldn't help but notice all of the guards carrying weapons. Crap. This wasn't going to end well. I had told Vanessa how much I hated the Capitol, and I thought she was a friend. She had given me instructions on how to escape. Was she just playing me to see if she could prove I was anti-Capitol? What was going to happen now? Was she going to turn me over to President Snow? I glanced out through a window and saw that we were passing a district, but I couldn't tell which one. It was unfamiliar to me. I stopped walking and looked out at it, trying to figure out what it was. It was relatively flat so it couldn't be District Two, it was too underdeveloped to be District One or District Three, and there weren't enough large bodies of water for it to be District Four. Maybe it was District Five? I never really did get a good look at that one. But there was no way District Five could be this big. This district seemed to just keep going. Vanessa had noticed my gazing and walked back over to me, "That's District Eleven. Because of the route we're taking, we don't get to see eight, nine, or ten. But District Twelve should be coming up soon." District Eleven? She turned and started to walk again, but I called out to her, "Why are we passing District Eleven?" She stopped and turned back to face me. "Where are we going?" I asked, utterly perplexed. "Follow me," she instructed. This time, I didn't hesitate. I walked hurriedly to catch up with her, suddenly very anxious to figure out what was going on.

We reached the front of the train but she led me up some stairs, exposing a second level to the front of the ship. This floor looked like an elegant lounge. The front of the train was simply a giant window, allowing us to see straight ahead of the ship. I could see District Twelve up ahead. I sat down on one of three couches places in the middle of the room, as did Vanessa. I sat on the left couch and she sat on the right. She picked up a small remote off of a nearby table and clicked a small red button at the top of it. Suddenly, he window closed and the room became dark. A digital screen flickered to life where the window had just been. Vanessa hit some buttons and a map appeared, showing where all of the districts were and where our ship was. According to the map, we had just passed District Twelve and were heading towards a red star just above where District Twelve was.

"Has anyone from your district told you about District Thirteen?" asked Vanessa. District Thirteen? Now that she thought about it, she remembered an old lady telling her once about a thirteenth district that the Capitol had simply destroyed after the war. But everyone had told me the woman wasn't in a good state of mind, so I had forgotten about it. "Once," I said, "I heard that there used to be a District Thirteen, but that the Capitol had destroyed it after the war. I didn't think it was true though." Vanessa smiled. "Part of it was true," she told me. She clicked a button on her remote and the map disappeared, replaced with pictures I automatically assumed were of District Thirteen. And then Vanessa explained the true story behind District Thirteen, how it existed entirely underground and survived independently. I soaked all this in the best I could, but it was a bit much to handle. A thirteenth district?

Then Vanessa began to talk about the resistance movement against the Capitol. "Not everyone in District Thirteen supports what we do," Vanessa had said, "But we do it anyway, because we know it's the right thing to do." She then told me about the movement, how she was part of it (no shit), and how there were several others like her working undercover in the Capitol. "You actually already know one of them," she told me. Seriously! Who? The door we had entered through opened, as if hearing my question. Into the room stepped a tall, pale-skinned woman with stringy blonde hair. "Hi," she smiled at me. I didn't recognize her appearance, and I didn't recognize her voice. But she seemed familiar..."Johanna," said Vanessa, "This is Paige, but you've known her as Galoriah." It took me a second to remember who Galoriah was, but when I did, my jaw hit the floor. That woman in the door was Puff.

(**A/N: Who saw THAT coming?**)

But...it wasn't Puff. Puff had large, obnoxious hair. Paige had stringy blonde hair. Puff had an annoyingly shrill voice. Paige's voice was soft and mellow. Puff loved the Capitol and everything it stood for. Paige was part of a resistance movement against the Capitol. There's no way these two people could be the same person. "Paige has been our best agent. She's been working behind enemy lines for the past fifteen years, and judging by the look on your face, I doubt you had a clue," snickered Vanessa. Damn right I didn't. But certain things I couldn't explain earlier suddenly made sense. This was why Puff...err...Paige had smiled after my rant on the train. And I realized now the person she was talking to on the train was most likely Vanessa (probably using some of District Thirteen's advanced technology that Vanessa couldn't help but brag about earlier). It also explained why she had kept an eye over me after I'd won. She had seemed so perky and Capitol-like before the Games though, but I attributed it to good acting. I did have one question though. "If you were working for the resistance, why did you try to get me to do advertising for Xerxes and Gondor?" Puff/Paige smiled, "We needed to know we could trust you, that you'd actually be willing to work against the Capitol. When you were actually able to follow the instructions Vanessa gave you, we knew that you could help us. That's why you're with us and someone like Brittany isn't. Brittany certainly doesn't feel strongly about the Capitol, and she even tried to warn you about what they could do, but she's never had the guts to fight back in any of the situations she's ever been put in. You fought back and won in your first tight situation." I couldn't help but smile a bit out of pride. "We need people like you," said Vanessa, "People who can easily get information from the Capitol and get people to rally behind them. Plus, you're a proven fighter. You're a Victor, you'll be useful. If a rebellion ever happens, it'll be good to know we can count on you." "We can count on you, right?" asked Puff/Paige.

They both stared at me, anxiously awaiting my answer. "Absolutely,"

"Good," they both said, sighing in relief. "Are there any other Victors, like me, in the resistance?" I asked. "Yes, actually," began Vanessa, "Just last week, Finnick Odair officially joined our side. Mags, another Victor from District Four, has been part of the resistance for the past forty years." "And a pair from District Three," added Puff/Paige, "Plus, one other tribute."

"Who?" I asked as Vanessa nudged Puff/Paige. "Who's the other one?" I continued, confused as to why they didn't want to tell me. Vanessa glared at Puff/Paige, who responded, "You'll know at some point." She looked over at Vanessa, who nodded, approving the response. "But, we still have some time before we reach District Thirteen. Why don't you go find your room and have some rest? You must be tired." said Puff/Paige. Actually, I wasn't tired at all, but I knew that she was trying to politely tell me to leave. I nodded my head and left the room, but once the door closed behind me I went back and placed my ear against the door. To my surprise, I could actually hear some of what they were saying. "We really should tell her," said Puff/Paige, "It's not fair to keep her in the dark like this." "It doesn't matter if it's fair," Vanessa argued, "Telling her can only complicate things. She's motivated against the Capitol and that's what we want. Telling her what we know could completely mess with her emotions. Things will just be easier if she doesn't know." "I guess you're right," conceded Puff/Paige. "She'll know eventually," said Vanessa reassuringly, "When the time's right."

Epilogue

We had gotten to District Thirteen and I was formally introduced to everyone in the resistance. But after the first meeting, I realized there wasn't much that could be done. The only thing I could contribute was knowledge of the Capitol, but I only went there once a year anyway. And even when I was there, I didn't do much. Most of the work was given to other people, and I was left to mentor the two tributes from my district. Both of them died in the initial bloodbath at the cornucopia.

This continued for the next five years too. Year after year, I tried to train these kids the best I could only to watch them die minutes after stepping into the arena. And year after year, I did little to actually help the resistance movement fight the Capitol. Not like the resistance movement even did that much. They had spent the five years since I'd joined making a map of the Capitol, which they said would be useful if and when war broke out. Every time they said this though, I rudely reminded them that war required actual action, which was always met with scowls. They seemed inept at doing anything, but Vanessa had once reminded me that they needed the people in the districts to be on our side too, and that they needed to be motivated. They needed a spark, she had said. I had asked why we couldn't work to try to get the people of the districts on our side, but then she went into the logistics of getting into the districts and convincing people to join without alerting the Peacekeepers and I had just walked away. She had a point, but it was still annoying that there really was nothing we could do at this point.

Vanessa and Paige still hadn't told me what they were hiding either. After five years, I had gotten over it, but it was frustrating to know they were keeping something from me. It probably wasn't even that important anyways...

I spent most of my time the way I had before I was reaped. Sure, it was nice having a giant mansion, but sometimes it just felt so empty. But the difference between then and now was that I was happier now. I had never been so happy to just sit in my tree fort and throw knives, or sell things at the Val. I still wasn't very social, I still hated most people on site, but I had become friends with a few more of the shopkeepers.

The 74th Hunger Games had taken most of my attention recently. I was stuck mentoring two thirteen year olds who I knew wouldn't last a few hours, but I worked hard to train them anyway. Flip was more awful than ever. Occasionally, there'd be a tribute who had potential, and he'd take interest in him. But otherwise, he just ignored the weaker tributes. I helped them because I felt obligated to. I remembered how Brittany treated me compared to Flip and I tried my hardest to be as much like Brittany as possible. But that involved getting personally attached to the tributes, making it that much harder to watch them get killed each year. Regardless, I kept trying to mentor the kids well, and at the very least, I was served a yearly reminder of how much I hated the Capitol and why I was glad to be in the resistance. This year's Hunger Games probably wasn't going to be any different than they'd been since I won: a Career was probably going to win. But for the first time in a long time, someone from an outlying district had volunteered. She'd ought to be at least a little bit interesting to watch...

**A/N: I'm really sad now...It's over...But I'm sort of happy too because I just completed my first fanfic! :D**

**Hopefully I didn't end it too abruptly, but I did throw in an epilogue. In general, I'm happy with how this story turned out. Not all of it was my best writing (I felt like I rushed some stuff), and I didn't even edit any of the chapters before posting them, but I'm happy with the final product. It was exhausting at times though. I think I'll try writing some one-shots before doing anything long like this again. Did you guys like the ending?**

**Any guesses as to what Vanessa and Paige are keeping from Johanna? I'm sorry to leave it open ended like that, but I sort of had to. It would've messed up the story if Johanna heard what it was, but I had this idea and wasn't sure if I should put it in, so I put it in without revealing what it was so I could pretend it didn't exist if I changed my mind about it later. I could've given you more information...but I decided not to. Anyways, I'll PM you and tell you if you guess correctly (and if you ask really nicely maybe I'll tell you anyway).**

**Once again, I want to thank anyone who's stuck around and read everything I've put up. It really means a lot that people are actually reading this and liking it. Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and the story as a whole. Hope you liked it. Thanks for reading! :D**


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